
(to IPX) 5<* 
Book ' Gr ^ fc 



OLD FACTS 

AND MODERN INCIDENTS 

SUPPLEMENTARY 

TO 

IMPRESSIONS OF GERMANY. 



\AMhM (%0^sUJ 0. 

(I V ' V\ Was ist c 



des Deutschen Vaterland? 
So nenne endlieh mir das Land! 
"So weit die deutsche Zuiige klingt, 
"Und Gott im Himmel Lieder singt" 
Das soil es sein, 
Das, wackrer Deutschcr, soil es sein! 




DRESDEN. 

Printed by C. Heinjuch. 
MDCCCLXVtri. 

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION, 



j 3 






The privelege of translation reserved. 



"I this infer 
As many arrows loosed several ways 
Fly to their mark; 

As many several ways meet in one town; 
As many fresh streams run in one self sea: 
As many lines close in the dial's centre ; 
So many a thousand actions, once afoot 
End in one purpose, and be all well borne, 
"Without defeat." 



TO 



M rs. BANCROFT 



These P a g e s are Inscribe d 



AS A TOKEN OF KEGAKD 



FROM HER OLD FRIEND 




PREFATORY. 



Hardly had "Impressions of Germany", been 
issued from the press, when that great change 
passed over the land, the Prussian Invasion. 

From the placidity in which the nation had 
been indulging for some fifty years, they were 
suddenly roused to the certainty of War. 

We, who were merely sojourners among them, 
partook of the general excitement. During the 
short period the war lasted, I kept a Journal for 
private use, a record of small events, and daily 
occurrences; later, finding there w T as an intrin 
sic interest in the account of the days passed in 
Dresden during the Prussian investment, I resolved 
to shape it into a supplementary volume. 

Historical facts though grown old and thread- 
bare in the places that gave them birth, are many 
of them new, or perhaps forgotten by the gene- 
rality of that far removed circle of friends to 
whom my books are restricted, and who under 
the pressure of existence in the New world, have 
very little time to occupy themselves with the 
fossilated remains of the old. They are familiar 
with the historic chronicles of England and of 



PREFATORY. 

France, while the curious annals of all the petty 
courts of Germany, have no special attraction for 
them, or are thoroughly ignored. 

Germany is daily gaining new importance 
in the eyes of the world, behind whose advance 
she has hitherto "dragged her slow length along". 

Men now turn their attention to the investi- 
gation of causes and effects which have operated 
in bringing new things to pass, and in so doing 
will discover many curious and obsolete facts, 
many old prejudices and hidden traditions, which 
have served to weaken and bind down with the 
strong cords of habit the divers states, as with 
a Gordian knot, rendering them helpless, and per- 
haps contemptible, and which it seems nothing 
but a conqueror's sword could undo. 

The political questions still quivering in the 
Balance, uncertain yet which will preponderate, 
prevent all decision as to the future; I attempt 
nothing here beyond detailing what has passed 
before my eyes, and what I have honestly adopted 
for my title page, a few old facts, and modern 
incidents. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Dresden 186G 1 

II. The King's Return 37 

III. Koenigstein 46 

IV. The Minor courts of Germany . . ' . 76 
V. Court Chronicles 100 

VI. The Wasunger War ....... 124 

VII. Old Dresden 135 

VIII. Plauensche Grund 153 

IX. Freiberg 171 

X. Herrnhut 209 

XI. Berlin 232 

XII. Potsdam 281 



OLD FACTS 

AND MODERN INCIDENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
DRESDEN 1866. 

God's most dreaded instrument 
For working out a pure intent 
Is man arrayed for mutual slaughter ; 
Yea. Carnage is thy daughter. 

All eyes are turned hitherward; men's minds 
are bent upon the problem, still unsolved, will 
there result from the great events of this year, a 
United Germany? 

The "Vaterland", is a fine poetical term, but 
I fear me, only a term. University students tone 
their lyres to that key, and there are men who 
still worship Liberty, as the Athenians did their 
"unknown God", but the mass of Germans are 
content to dwell in passiveness for ever, uncon- 
cerned by the great events that are transpiring 



2 CHAPT. I. 

around them, hardly roused beyond the feeling 
of the hour, to resent the mighty changes which 
are to shape their future destiny. 

I have thought, if the Prussian Conqueror 
had been magnanimous enough to plant the grand 
old National flag, and rouse the enthusiasm of 
the people, whether they might not the more 
readily have saluted him "Imperator", and accep- 
ted at once the idea of Union, and Nationality; 
whereas to bow before the lugubrious black and 
white stripes of Prussia, approximated somewhat 
to the feeling of bowing before the cap of Gessler. 
The masses are more guided by instinctive feeling, 
than by reason; you may argue that wealth, and 
order, and religion, will follow in the train of 
Prussia's conquest, reason acknowledges it; but 
feeling has woven around the old homes of the 
princedoms, memories, and early attachments, and 
family pride, hard for men to set aside, and 
accept at once a new order of things imposed 
by arbitrary power. 

( )n one occasion Henry IV. and Sully were 
looking over the map of Europe with intention 
of remodelling it, they concluded Prussia was such 



DRESDEN. 6 

an insignificant territory, it needed not to be 
taken into account! Prussia at this moment, in 
the magnitude of her power, chafes the borders, 
if not the temper, of Imperial France. She has 
submerged principalities and powers ; Saxony alone 
has escaped, with a shadow of royalty in its 
palaces, and foreign military governors and gar- 
risons in its towns, while its brave little army 
dispersed about the country, sees its homes 
occupied by strangers. 

Men's passions, prejudices, and interests so 
excited, hinder a fair judgment of the present 
period; it must be left for the next generation 
to take an impartial view of this great era; those 
who have lived among the scenes just enacted 
can but give the impression of the moment. 

I have presented to my friends a view of old 

Germany in her repose of fifty years of peace; 

there had occurred during that period it is true, 

a bubbling up of revolutionary effervescence, soon 

quelled, and the volcanic matter apparently dried 

up, but it was smouldering only, and ready to 

assume new form according to the appliances 

brought in action. 

1* 



4 CHAPT. I. 

Men listened and conjectured how all the 
hurly-burly at Franckfort would end; most thought 
it would be but a war of words among diplo- 
matists, to be settled eventually by intervention; 
some shook their heads and said war was in- 
evitable; thus things stood till May 1866, which 
found all Europe under arms, and a general war 
threatening. The political horizon grew blacker 
and blacker; when finally the blow was struck. 
On the fifteenth of June, the king of Prussia 
demanded Saxony's answer in twenty four hours, 
whether she remained friend or foe; the reply 
was, "we - will not yield", whereupon the Prussians 
began their advance over the frontier. On the 
sixteenth Dresden was evacuated, and the king 
issued the following Proclamation: 

w To My MtMil. 8axon8. 

An. unjustified attack forces Me, to take 
up arms! Saxons! Because we faithfully stood 
by the side of right of a Brother race, because 
we firmly held to the ties which embrace the 
great German Fatherland, because we did not 
comply with demands contrary to the con- 
federation, We are treated with enmity. 



DRESDEN. 5 

However painful the sacrifices may be 
which fate will impose on us, let us courage- 
ously go on to combat for the holy cause! 

It is true, our numbers are small, but God 
is powerful in helping the weak who confide 
in him, and the assistance of the rest of Ger- 
many true to the confederation, will not fail us. 

Although for the moment, I am forced to 
yield to superior forces, and to part from you, 
yet, I shall remain in the midst of My gallant 
army, where I shall still feel Myself in Saxony, 
and I hope, if Heaven grants success to our 
arms, I shall soon return to you. 

I firmly trust to your faithfulness and to 
your affection. As we held together in the 
hours of prosperity, so let us hold together 
in the hours of trial; therefore confide in Me, 
you whose welfare was and remains the aim 
of My endeavours. 

With God for our right! Such be our 
device. 

Dresden, the 16th J une 1866. 



6 CHAPT. I. 

All the troops assembled around the king 
at Pima. The Royal ladies retired into Bavaria, 
with the exception of the Queen dowager, who 
remained, and assumed the post of protectress 
of Dresden. 

The king of Saxony then moved with his 
army beyond the Bohemian frontier, in expectation 
of being joined by an Austrian or Bavarian force, 
but neither were ready. The original program 
proposed was, to give battle to the advancing foe. 
The promptness and alacrity of the Prussians, the 
very audacity with which they carried out their 
design staggered men's minds; whether the Austrian 
commander changed his plan of action, or from 
whatever cause, no advance was made from the 
quarter whence it was expected. 

The thorough organization of the Prussian 
troops constituted their great power; their men 
went to war reluctantlv, we had it from their 
own lips every day while they were quartered 
upon us; on the other hand the Austrians were 
enthusiastic to be led to fight their insolent rivals, 
who so recently in the Schleswig-Holstein war, 
had made them feel their superiority. 



DRESDEN. i 

The Hungarians a lively spirited people, were 
readily roused to arms from their instinctive 
dislike to German influence; there needed but 
some powerful mind to organize all these, and 
lead them on; such failed, and all was lost. 

There was a moment at Koeniggratz, a Saxon 
artillery officer told me himself, when he turned 
to a companion and said "The battle is ours". 
Hardly were the words uttered, when he saw the 
Austrians turn their backs and fly; at that moment 
he thinks had they had, a daring energetic com- 
mander, to instantly order a trumpet rappel, the 
panic would have been arrested, and the troops 
rallied, but no such leader was there. The race 
of great marshals seems extinct; their mantles 
have not fallen upon the shoulders of their suc- 
cessors. The wonderful power of Napoleon's armies 
lay in the talent and genius of his generals, men 
for the most part raised from subaltern ranks, 
by the strength of their own capabilities. The 
Austrian service ignores such; the clumsey old 
machinery built oh rank and pride of blood, 
hampers all chance of progress. Not that among 
the luxurious and pleasure loving Austrians, there 
lurks not many an Alcibiades who can rise from 



8 CHAPT. I. 

his purple couch , fling off the festive rosecrown, 
assume the sword and helmet, and fight valiantly 
when the time comes, but for such to be shackled, 
and subjected to leaders whose principal merit 
lies in their quarterings at the herald office, is 
a degradation of all military spirit. The Prussian 
character partakes more of a Roman element, 
perfect organization, coupled with great natural 
energy; in the latter quality they stand alone in 
all Germany, and to their own supineness, the 
smaller states owe their subjection; and Austria 
its humiliation. Saxony alone was an exception. 
When the alarm was sounded, she was ready. 
The king had pat his house in order, all his 
officials and domestics were paid three months 
in advance, Dresden was prudently evacuated 
to save it from a bombardment. 

After the departure of the troops, and Royal 
family, a gloom settled upon men's minds; here 
and there about the town a movement was felt, 
a, "mounting in hot haste'', among a few cowardly 
people, not on "barbed steeds", be it understood, 
but in any old vehicle they could command, high 
piled with trunks and luggage, seeking refuge 
from they knew not what. 



DKESDEN. 9 

Sunday the seventeenth was stilled with the 
hush of expectation. Not a soldier remained in 
the town; the citizens generally keeping within 
their homes. That night passed in most pro- 
found silence. 

Monday the eighteenth dawned , calm and 
beautiful ; as it always is here in June. The 
Prussians were approaching nearer and nearer. 
I cannot say the interior of our domicile was as 
tranquil as the aspect of things without; there were 
packings of valuables, and boxing up of plate, 
and family consultations as to the best way of 
securing these; whether a hole should be dug in 
the garden , or a place should be walled up in 
the cellar! I own to some such cowardly procee- 
dings. We were not afraid of the Prussians 
marching through, nor of the garrison they might 
leave here, but in case of defeat, we feared the 
inroad of half civilized Croats, and unprincipled 
soldiery from among the heterogeneous medley 
which composed the Austrian army, and which 
might be liable to commit any irregularity in 
case they were victorious. 

I stood in my garden room this lovely eigh- 
teenth of June, when I heard a man in the court 



10 CHAPT. I. 

say to one of my domestics, "They are there, 
the Prussians are crossing the new bridge". My 
parlors front upon the avenue, I went forward, 
and my eyes fell upon five Hussars, in red uniforms 
mounted, carrying their short carabines levelled. 
They walked their horses slowly past; a dead 
silence prevailed; a few pedestrians stopped and 
gazed after them ; not a dog barked, not a peasant 
wagon was to be seen; evidently it was a 
reconnoitre. At the same time a troop of hussars, 
rode into the other extremity of the town, and 
defiled on the open square in front of the southern 
rail road station; there too all was empty and 
silent, the officials had been paid off, and the rail 
carriages transported to Bohemia. A considerable 
force then marched in under the Georgian gate 
by the palace, and Dresden was invested. 

I own the sight of those five red Hussars 
appalled me; war was really at our doors, an 
undefined sensation of fear took possession of 
me; war, — of which as yet I had had no know- 
ledge but that derived from descriptions of valiant 
deeds emblazoned on the pages of history, or the 
ringing of battle axe and shield in epic poetry. 
We were conquered, without bloodshed it is true, 



DRESDEN. 11 

but who could calculate the future. The enemy 
took possession of the vacated barracks and 
guard-houses, the citizens looked on in dismay, 
closed their shops, and waited. 

Another day passed, "the cry was still they 
come". The direct road into Bohemia by the 
rail road or the river was closed for the Prussians, 
both ran within gun shot of the formidable fortress 
of Koenigstein, consequently their whole corps 
d'armee was forced to march to Bautzen, a town 
near the Silesian frontier, where numerous rail- 
ways converge, and near the point where Bohemia, 
Silesia, and Saxony geographically embrace each 
other. 

At six o'clock on the morning of the twentieth 
the march of that formidable force known as the 
army of the Elbe, began commanded by General 
Herwarth von Bittenfeld. The avenue under my 
windows terminates in the direct post road to 
Bautzen, it is very wide, and the houses recede 
somewhat , so that we had a full view of 
the splendid pageant. Eegiment after regiment 
passed, their golden Eoman helmets glittering in 
the sun; troops of cavalry, gorgeous Hussars, 
Lancers , Hulans , long trains of cannon and 



12 CHAPT. I. 

ammunition wagons; drums beating, pennons 
flying, military bands, hour after hour, from six 
in the morning till three in the afternoon, one 
unbroken mass of troops; one's eyes became 
weary looking at them, but turning from the 
windows to find rest within, the tramp of feet, 
the heavy roll of the artillery carriages, rung in 
our ears, and grated upon our excited nerves, 
the din of war, in very truth. 

The following day more troops arrived, they 
were live hours marching past in the same 
direction. On the twenty second detached regi- 
ments passed at intervals during the day, with 
long trains of cannon, and ammunition wagons. 
The Prussians are tall strong line looking men, 
in physical appearance and structure far beyond, 
the delicately framed Saxons; but as far as 
endurance, and discipline, and courage go, our 
brave Saxon boys have proved to the world there 
can be no better troops. 

Soon the rumor spread that the Bavarians 
and Austrians were on the advance with intention 
of giving battle to the Prussians, and we looked 
for their approach from the south west, over 
those very fields where the battle of Dresden 



DRESDEN. 1 3 

was fought in 1813 under Napoleon, against the 
allied forces; there, where General Moreau fell, 
shot by a ball projected from the town walls. 
There is a tradition here, that it was Napoleon 
himself who ordered one of the artillerists to take 
aim at a small eminence where a knot of officers 
distinguished by their white plumes had assem- 
bled, the ball struck Moreau, and shot off both 
his legs; on learning this Napoleon exclaimed: 
"So perishes the traitor to his country", later he 
caused the distance to be measured and found 
it extended two thousand yards. 

A monument marks the spot, a plain granite 
block surmounted by an helmet; his body was 
carried to St. Petersburg. 

When before the battle of Waterloo the 
French general Bournent deserted the French 
ranks and presented himself to Blucher, having 
mounted a white cockade, "No matter what color 
a traitor assumes, said the brave old soldier, he 
remains a traitor still". 

The Prussians evidently expected an attack, 
they began throwing up breastworks, and planting 
cannon; the inhabitants occupying villas, or houses 
fronting on that quarter, were warned to retire. 



14 CHAPT. I. 

Some only came into the centre of the town, but 
many fled in hot haste to the Rhine, England, or 
the Ultima Thule, for what I know, as if the red 
hot cannon balls were already at their heels ! The 
excitement was of short duration; one night of 
suspense, when the soldiers were under arms, 
and officers upon the house tops, watching with 
their glasses, and all was over. The Bavarians 
have acquired the character of lag lasts, like the 
inhabitants of Colophon in Ionia; whose name 
passed into a Greek proverb, they always coming 
in hindmost; well Bavaria sustained her reputation 
in this war, and Dresden remained tranquilly 
appropriated by the Prussians. 

Of course they took possession of the tele- 
graphs, the post offices, and the press; making 
all subservient to their own purposes. The people 
winced under it all, cui buono? we were con- 
quered, it was but the fortune of war. 

All communication was cut off from the south, 
we knew not what was transpiring there. A 
proclamation from the king of Saxony however 
was smuggled in, assuring his people he had not 
abandoned them wilfully, but was unequal to 
meeting Prussia alone, and would not expose his 



DRESDEN. 15 

domains to the devastations of war. So the 
Saxons took patience, and resignedly crossed their 
hands, and waited the result. 

Every household had soldiers quartered upon 
it, some more, some less, according to the means 
of the proprietor. I had my quota, and can truly 
say, better disciplined, orderly, respectful men, I 
have never met. I had seventeen in all, at 
different periods; some for only three or four 
days, some for two weeks at a time. There was 
a regulation exacting from every family so many 
meals a day, and so much beer and tobacco, I 
confess I never gave grudgingly, and I found 
them grateful, only they gently intimated to the 
servant who waited upon them, that "her honored 
lady" (gnadige Frau), did not know tobacco from 
cabbage leaves! I was fain to acknowledge the 
fact even in this age of female proficiency, so 
we compromised matters for a small sum per day, 
which they were to invest in tobacco of their 
own choosing; in fact I rather petted my soldiers ; 
poor fellows they do not get much pampering 
during service, and many a day's march is made 
in time of war, with nothing but the bit of black 



16 CHAPT. I. 

bread they carry in their pouches to stay their 
empty stomachs. 

Thus for days we remained shut up within 
our houses ; profoundly ignorant of what was 
passing beyond the circuit of Dresden. Rumor, 
"with her thousand tongues", did find her way 
in, but what was told to day, was contradicted 
on the morrow, and we grew weary at last of 
false excitement, and sick at heart from hope 
deferred; . we had dear ones in that little Saxon 
army. 

At length the fatal day dawned. From the 
quiet of our retirement we were roused by the 
loud booming of cannon, repeated, and repeated. 
We looked at one another, "the battle has begun", 
rose to every lip. We remained very still, we 
were only women and children in the house. 
Finally a maid was sent out to learn the truth; 
I retired into my own room and listened, I almost 
immediately became convinced it was no battle, 
the firing was too regular, no sound of the con- 
fusion of war; our servant returned and brought 
us the intelligence that they were firing a salute 
in honor of a great victory won by the Prussians. 
The battle of Koeniggratz, that, wich will be 



DRESDEN. 17 

marked with a red cross hereafter, on the map 
of Europe as one of the great battles of the world, 
altering the destiny of empires. 

The news was soon confirmed; the slaughter 
had been immense and the brave Saxons had been 
cut to pieces. A week of mental anguish followed, 
which can be felt, but not described. Then an 
official despatch arrived, telling that the infantry 
had suffered severely, the cavalry hardly at all, 
and the artillery, in which we individually were 
most interested, had come off with the loss of 
very few. 

This was owing, I learnt later, to a well 
chosen position from which they could pour down 
upon the enemy, whilst the Prussians did not 
level their guns high enough; most of the Saxon 
artillery were wounded in the legs, few mortally. 

I had seen pass before me the grand panoply 
of war, that which inspires enthusiasm in old and 
young, "the pomp and circumstance of glorious 
war", the proud bearing, the resolute step, the 
confidence of brave men; who then heeds the 
end? yet come we soon to the terrible result. 

With the news of the battle came long trains 
of wagons loaded with wounded soldiers, and for 



18 CHAPT. I. 

weeks and weeks afterwards, the mournful shriek 
of the rail -road whistle reverberated through the 
midnight air, telling of suffering and anguish, for 
it was in order to avoid the heat that the 
wounded were transported during the night. And 
now opened upon us that beautiful phase of 
humanity, sympathy and self denial, which redeems 
mankind in part, from their great heritage of Sin; 
hospitals were opened in all directions; some, 
organized in haste, but soon amply supplied with 
all that could relieve suffering. Now woman 
shone forth in her attribute of "ministering angel", 
tending the bed of anguish, as she ever is found 
in all lands, and under all calamities. I am proud 
to say that several of these devoted women were 
personal friends of mine, through whom I learnt 
many interesting particulars. The heroism, the 
endurance, the patience, with which young and 
splendid men bore suffering, amputation, dis- 
figurement; the death bed seems, the child taught 
prayer of faith, recalled in the dying hour; the 
gratitude for kindnesses received, all going to 
prove noble traits of human nature, "that have 
survived the fall". I was told how wonderful, 
how frequent it was, that these great stalwart 



DKESDEN. 19 

men, used to the rough hard military life, would 
like little children murmur, "oh that I could see 
my mother", the first deep feeling of the heart, 
the first word lisped in infancy, was upon the 
lips of the dying. What a balm to the hearts 
of bereaved women. 

The letter of a young soldier was copied for 
me; he sent it home just before he marched to 
battle; I never learnt his name, nor whether he 
survived the war, but going forth in such a spirit 
at least he was prepared to die. It is worth 
keeping, and I transcribe it here. It was addressed 
to his parents. 

M B©arp©rt p^citee 

It is with the deepest and most heartfelt 
emotion that I am writing to you to day from 
a foreign land ; I have been to church service 
and heard a beautiful sermon from our field 
preacher on the text, "be true unto death." We 
partook of the holy bread and wine after- 
wards, about two thousand of us. My soul 
is glad to know the blood of the lamb has 
been shed for me too, and that the arm of the 
Almighty will receive me if I fall. I had 

2* 



20 CHAPT. I. 

never been in such a church, nor celebrated 
the holy communion in such a way. We 
were in an open space in the midst of a 
wood; the branches of the trees formed the 
walls, over which the blue sky spread like a 
canopy, speaking of eternal peace. High and 
strong beech and fir trees were the columns, 
the music bands of both regiments accompanied 
the voices of two thousand men; the very 
beautiful organ, of that unparalleled church; 
two hours afterwards we marched, perhaps to 
battle. Do pray fervently that God may keep 
me safe, ajid protect me with his powerful 
hand. Thanks for your forgiveness, it has 
done my heart good, it has made me happy 
to perform my duty to day. Adieu, farewell 
my most beloved father and mother, should 
I fall, send my love to my brothers and sisters; 
a kiss from your son who is so happy at 
this moment, pray for me dear and best 
beloved parents/' 



DRESDEN. 21 

This is a literal translation of the young 
soldier's letter; beautiful from its tone of deep 
piety, beautiful too for that appreciation of nature 
which seems inherent in all German hearts; he 
felt the calm cathedral silence of the forest , and 
from Nature, he rose upwards to "Nature's God". 

I am told these field services are peculiarly 
solemnizing, prayer and praise rising to that 
mysterious heaven above, so far off to the eye, 
so near to the spirit working within. 

"Here you can stand 
Adore and worship when you know it not, 
Pious beyond the intention of your thought, 
Devout above the meaning of your will." 

I met with such a beautiful translation of 
the young hero Korner's battle hymn, I have been 
tempted to introduce it here: 

Korner's battle Hymn. 

Father, I call on thee! 
Roaring the cannon hurl round me their clouds, 
Flashing the lightning bursts with its shrouds. 

God of battles, I call upon thee! 

Father, oh guide thou me! 



22 CTTAPT. I. 

Father, oh guide thou me! 
Lead me to victory, lead me to death, 
Lord I '11 acknowledge thee with my last breath, 

Lord as thou listest, guide thou me! 

God, I acknowledge thee! 

God, I acknowledge thee! 
As when the first autumn leaves fall to the ground, 
So, when the thunders of battle resound. 

Fountain of mercy, I recognize thee! 

Father, oh bless thou me! 

While I watched the marshalling of that 
splendid army , and the proud bearing of so 
many fine young men, my heart ached, and my 
eyes moistened with the feeling , how many will 
be sacrificed, how many will be missing in those 
ranks when they return; even then, I little under- 
stood what was meant by war, I have learnt the 
horrors of it since. Why is it so? every great 
event in the world's history, has been baptized 
with human blood, and how will sovereigns and 
rulers expiate this great sin? The second great 
act in the drama of the world was a deed of 
bloodshed. From the times of the patriarchs, 
onward to the victories of the Israelites, all through 
the pages of sacred writ, one finds a continuous 



DRESDEN. 23 

relation of battles lost and won. The advent 
of the Lord, he who came on a message of peace 
and good will towards men, was followed by all 
the horrors of war, Christianity was watered 
by the blood of martyrs, and the so-called 
religious wars, devastated the world for centuries. 
Ambition, revenge, lust of power, pride of conquest, 
have been glossed over by the achievements of 
heroism, bravery, and mighty conquest, but the 
fact remains, the crime of slaughter is no less true. 

The summer was long and dreary. The 
rapid advance, and conquest of Prussia within 
the Austrian dominions, gave her the power of 
dictating the terms of peace, almost under the 
walls of Vienna. 

The rival powers settled their differences 
promptly, but our poor little Saxon land found 
itself in a sad position. Her affairs were not so 
soon arranged. The people began to despond at 
the long absence of their king. He issued a 
second proclamation stating, his return was re- 
tarded until he could come to satisfactory terms 
with Prussia. Gloom pervaded every thing, even 
nature. July and August were dark, cold, and 
rainy: high north winds prevailed for weeks at 



24 CHAPT. I. 

a time, sweeping up the valley of the Elbe as if 
the wild huntsman and his pack were on the 
tract of the blast, whooping and shreaking as 
they flew. Then came the fear of pestilence. 
Cholera appeared in several towns; a few cases 
occurred in Dresden, but as in former times, it 
gained no foothold here, owing as is conjectured 
to the formation of the soil. We were spared at 
least that terrible consequence of war — pestilence. 
It was also averred that the cold north winds 
purified the atmosphere, and were certainly most 
favorable to the hospital patients in their fevered 
state. Meanwhile the Prussian soldiers made them- 
selves perfectly at home; settled down in the bar- 
racks, and stood sentinel at the doors of the public 
buildings, and before the gates of the royal palaces. 
The gloomy black and white -flag swung from 
the attic window of the guard house by the bridge, 
down to the very ground, awakening every 
Saxon's grief-feeling as it waved to and fro with the 
wind, fanning them as they passed. One felt as if 
the brooding black eagle sat there aloft, like Poe's 
"Raven", croaking, "never — never — never more." 
But the unkindest cut of all was, when they 
began to bore our beautiful old bridge. It was 



DRESDEN. 25 

purposed it should be sprung, in case of need, as 
it was served by the French in 1813, when one 
of the arches was destroyed; this was accom- 
plished under General Davoust to facilitate his 
retreat to Leipzig. This bridge built entirely of 
stone, is considered the finest in Germany; it 
commands a beautiful view of the town, the pictu- 
resque bend of the river on the one hand, and 
the hills of Meissen on the other, with a fine 
perspective of the new bridge, erected within 
twenty years, traversed by a railway made to 
connect the Leipzig and Prague lines. 

Of course I sympathized very deeply with 
the Saxons in their humiliation, but could not 
view things entirely from one side, as they did; 
I look upon the Prussians as having been very 
just and moderate, considering they had every 
thing in their power. There are certain require- 
ments to which the conquered must submit, how- 
ever galling to their feelings; I found I could 
reason thus coolly probably because the amor pa- 
triae chord, was not wrung in me. 

One day an order was issued that all citizens 
having arms in their houses of whatever descrip- 
tion, should forthwith yield them up to the pro- 



26 CHAPT. I. 

per authorities, an inspector having been appoin- 
ted to see that the law was enforced. This pro- 
duced considerable stir in the households where 
only womankind remained, and it was amusing 
to hear their devices "to cheat the Prussians !" The 
women were much more virulent than the men 
against the enemy, they always are; feeling over- 
leaps judgment, and they vociferate what men 
more wisely keep within their thoughts. So the 
women set about saving their husbands' fancy 
arms, and I can vouch for two dress swords 
being sewed up in flannel and deposited under a 
plank in the kitchen floor; whilst an old rusty 
pistol that would not go off by any chance, was 
delivered up to the enemy, much to the regret of 
our eight-year-old Max, who had been exercising 
with it all summer in the garden, and had there 
killed heaps of imaginary Prussians. This hero 
was only consoled by a new toy gun, when 
"thrice he slew the slain." 

Another sore annoyance to the Dresdeners 
was the throwing up of intrenchments and other 
means of defense, all about the circuit of the 
town; these had been abolished, the town walls 
levelled, and the ditches filled up, since 1818. 



' DEESDEN. 27 

People had forgotten it had been a fortified place 
in the olden time, and that it was a strong point 
of defense on the Elbe; so that there was great 
wailing and grinding of teeth when they saw 
their pleasure grounds beyond the town, invaded 
by planted cannon, and troops of workpeople busy 
digging trenches, or raising powder houses. It 
was not so much at what was actually accom- 
plished, as the display of ownership, and the mor- 
tification of being considered a Prussian garrison 
town. 

After the peace was concluded with Austria, 
the southern rail -way being reopened, the bulk 
of the Prussians returned home by that route, 
but Dresden was nevertheless crowded with them, 
coming in detached regiments, remaining a few 
days, and then off, while others followed to fill 
their places; they were well disciplined, but very 
jolly, as they had reason to be; they drove about, 
officers and men, in every kind of vehicle, and 
the tops of the omnibuses were generally crow- 
ned with a mass of glittering helmets, singing- 
choruses at the top of their bent ; this singing in 
chorus, is a marked feature in the teaching of 
the schools for the people all over Germany, and 



28 CHAPT. I, 

very much encouraged among the Prussian troops, 
if I may judge from the many small bodies of 
men coming in from a march passing under 
my windows, who seemed to relieve their fatigue, 
by martial songs. 

As to the omnibus warriors, I rather attri- 
buted their high spirits to a return from a cam- 
paign in the Waldschlosschen territory, that being 
within a mile of us, where some of the best beer 
in Saxony is brewed, and where a fine terrace 
overlooking the river, is an attraction the more, 
for people to congregate and drink it. When 
the choral roaring from the omnibuses reached 
my ears, I could not help thinking of the remark 
of an old red Indian at home, pretty well ex- 
perienced in such matters, /'that a barrel of 
whisky contained one thousand songs, and fifty 
fights." Beer is not so soul - stirring it appears, 
for when the Saxons returned, and found them- 
selves in a measure obliged to fraternize with the 
Prussians, there were only a few squabbles, soon 
settled by the admirable discipline on both sides ; 
but they never were amicable together. 

I learnt later it was a part of the caserne 
discipline in Prussia, for the officers, who are 



DRESDEN. 29 

generally good musicians, to give the soldiers 
singing lessons. The songs generally are patriotic, 
but they also use religious hymns, and sometimes 
pieces of a comic turn; the habit, while it con- 
duces to their amusement, keeps the men from 
frequenting the beer houses too often. There was 
a concert given soon after the war in Berlin, for 
the benefit of the wounded, entirely performed 
by officers, and the leader was Colonel Drigalsky ; 
the king was highly amused to find an entire 
opera orchestra composed of his officers. 

As far back as the sixteenth century Trotzen- 
dorf the celebrated school master, encouraged his 
scholars to learn music by singing, giving as a 
reason, in the spirit of those times, "learn to sing 
boys, and then if you go to heaven the angels 
will admit you into their choir." 

I was witness to one skirmish, in which some 
of the heroes, "bit the dust" as Homer's did. A 
returning troop of Prussian cavalry passed , fol- 
lowed by a train of baggage wagons, led horses, 
and three or four dogs. When they had reached 
midway down the avenue, from each porch, court- 
yard, and garden, there rushed forth dogs of 
every degree; they flew upon the strangers; they 



30 CHAPT. I. 

barked, they bit, they tosseled, they rolled under 
the horses, the soldiers thrust at them with their 
swords, the people stopped and laughed, boys 
with bundles, workmen in their leather aprons, 
peasant women with baskets strapped to their 
backs, nursery maids with children, all stood 
enjoying the fun ; the provoked soldiers grew red 
in the face, the dogs had foisted them, so they 
trotted off at a brisk pace soon followed by their 
canine detachment, tails downward; the Saxon 
dogs had gained the victory, and retreated to 
their respective domiciles growling out their satis- 
faction on the door mats, all but Pfeffer, our 
little yellow terrier, who stood in the avenue 
barking snappishly at the retreating foe, as long 
as they remained in sight. This I believe was 
the last battle fought, and so the war was ended. 



There is an institution of which I only be- 
came aware during this last season of war, known 
in Germany as the "Johanniter Ritter", or knights 
of St. John, an order revived by the late king of 
Prussia. The old order of Hospitallers died out 



DKESDEN. 31 

as is well known, three centuries ago. Proud and 
overbearing during the period of the crusades, 
the Templars and the Hospitallers both forgot the 
end and aim of their mission, and by broils and 
quarrels disgraced their vocation ; it ended in the 
Hospitallers being expelled from Palestine. They 
found their way to north Germany where a small 
district called Prussia, still remained Pagan ; there 
they established themselves, gained influence and 
prospered, but the little Pagan district in time 
developed, and eventually gave its name to a 
kingdom. The order of the Teutonic knights of St. 
John developed also, and by their overbearing 
arrogance, and political intrigues, became obnoxious 
and were driven out of Germany, they dispersed, 
and only a small body joined themselves to the 
knights of Malta and established a house on that 
island. These Teutonic knights owed their origin 
to some benevolent Individuals of the Hansa who 
continued to succour their compatriotes at the siege 
of Acre, where the wounded Germans were dying 
for lack of aid. The leader in this pious work 
was one Walpot, "not a nobleman," says one of 
the old chroniclers, "but his deeds were noble". 
From such small beginning rose the powerful 



32 CHAPT. I. 

order of the Deutschen Kitter or Hospitallers of 
St. John. 

The revived order is a charitable institution ; 
its members are now all noblemen, but are only 
elected into the body on proof of high moral 
character, generosity, and good works ; they wear 
the silver cross of the order, and Prince Carl the 
king's brother, is now Grand master. During war 
they occupy themselves in superintending hospi- 
tals, and ministering supplies. Prince Reuss opened 
a depot here in Dresden where every thing 
that was wanted for the sick and wounded could 
be obtained; the officials were recognized by a 
white band round the arm marked with a red 
cross, and those terrible little blue wagons with 
canvass covers, and the great red cross badge 
painted on them, how they made one shudder, 
they transported to the hospitals the poor woun- 
ded suffering soldiers. 

When the knights find coadjutors in good 
works, women who devote their time and ener- 
gies to these hospital duties, volunteers, perseve- 
ring unto the end, they acknowledge such services 
frequently by presenting a gold cross of the or- 
der as a token of regard, many ladies in Dres- 



DRESDEN. 33 

den received them. The Johanniter Ritter in Prus- 
sia have a "Commendator" in every province of 
the state; they are divided into " Baileys ", that 
being the name by which the different companies 
go. "The Bailey of Brandenburg" &c. While 
speaking of benevolent actions, I must not omit 
the energetic self- sacrificing example set by 
Mrs. Simon, to whom the Emperor of Austria 
has sent a gold medal, the Queen of Prussia a 
brooch, and the King of Saxony a bracelet with 
his likeness encircled with diamonds. A Bohemian 
by birth, the first language she spoke was her 
native Tschechische. Removed to Saxony, she 
became a Saxon in heart, and after the battle of 
Koeniggratz, when reports reached Dresden of 
the dreadful neglect and destitution of the woun- 
ded, she collected what she could and went per- 
sonally to the battle field. Familiar with the 
language she influenced the Bohemian peasantry 
to have mercy ; in their hatred of the enemy they 
had destroyed the cords and buckets of the wells, 
and the dying had not a cup of cold water to 
wet their lips. The Austrians in their flight had 
left six hundred wounded men in the village of 
Harsenewes near Koeniggratz, and not a soul to 



34 CHAPT. I. 

care for them; Mrs. Simon discovered the fact, 
made it known to the medical staff, and was the 
means of saving many a wounded man; it is said 
however half had died from want of aid. Mrs. Si- 
mon's energy was great; she immediately retur- 
ned to Dresden, promptly collected the necessaries 
of life, and went back to the battle field; she 
found nine hundred men at Mei si ow it z equally 
forsaken; she went from one hospital to another, 
arranged and directed with all that quiet pre- 
cision so requisite in such emergencies; women 
generally are too excitable but this lady's presence 
indicates repose of character, and simplicity of 
nature. She does not appear to feel she has 
done any thing great, and I will contend those 
souls are greater, who can venture on the battle 
field the day after the slaughter, to relieve the 
dying, than the heroes, who under powerful ex- 
citement, and smoke and din, exterminate their 
fellow men Napoleon never could visit a field after a 
battle, a case in point. When a convention was held 
at Geneva of army surgeons to determine the laws 
by which they would abide in case of war, it was 
agreed that surgeons and medical men should be free- 
men, distributing their care to all indiscriminately. 



DRESDEN. 35 

Austria alone sent no representative , and 
blind as she ever is to her own interests , sub- 
scribed to no such agreement, and after the battle 
did not free several Prussian surgeons who had 
been taken prisoners. In the panic of flight the 
hospitals and every thing seemed to have been 
forgotten. The Prussians though amply provided, 
had not calculated on the enormous carnage, nor 
on the numbers of the enemy they would have 
to care for; orders were immediately transmitted 
to Berlin that contributions for the sick and 
wounded were needed, and should be forwarded 
whith all speed. The usual process seemed too 
slow to the citizens, and the plan was adopted 
that on each square a large wagon should be 
placed, a guard to watch it, and every one who 
felt disposed should carry there what he chose 
to give for the wounded soldiers; in less than 
two hours the wagons were filled to their full 
extent, every body came, even the poorest brought 
their mite: horses were in readiness, and they 
were driven to the rail -road station where per- 
sons authorized forwarded the contents; other wa- 
gons followed and were filled in still less time. 
A charming incident is told of a little child who, 



36 CHAPT. I. 

led on by the prevailing feeling , came with her 
breakfast roll in her apron and asked the guard 
to let her send it with the other things. The 
soldier smiled and patted her cheek saying, "she 
might eat it herself, there was enough already"; 
the little one was so unhappy and cried so much 
because her offering was rejected, the man was 
touched, and held her up to the wagon that she might 
put it in herself, and she went her way comfor- 
ted. — Many ladies and gentlemen announced 
they were ready to receive contributions in money, 
and were astonished at the kind of persons who 
presented themselves to give. One in particular 
a man of mean appearance opened an old leather 
pocket book and took bills out to the amount of 
eight thousand Thalers; the gentleman stared at 
him, and asked the name. "Never mind that, said 
he, whether it is Schmidt orMuller provided the 
money reaches its destination." This fact I learnt 
through the gentleman's wife. That great emer- 
gencies bring out great deeds is a received axiom. 
I do not know which to admire the most, the 
donation of eight thousand, or the little child's 
roll of bread. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE KING'S RETURN. 

The presence of a king engenders love 
Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends. 

Henry VI. 

.finally it was announced that the King would 
return to Saxony on the last day of October, and 
re-enter the summer palace at Pillnitz. The people 
yearned for his presence , and when he and the 
queen travelling like simple gentle folks, crossed 
the frontier, every station along the rail -road 
route was crowded with rich and poor, old and 
young, to welcome them. On that day every 
vehicle in Dresden was in requisition ; every boat 
upon the Elbe, every rail-road carriage was over- 
flowing with people bound Pillnitz - wise. The 



38 CHAPT. II. 

crowd was dense on both sides of the river there, 
where the ferry boat plies near the castle. 

The royal pair have suffered many sorrows, 
but I think that one day's demonstration of ge- 
nuine feeling must have somewhat sweetened their 
cup of bitterness. As the rail-road train stopped, 
one spontaneous cheer rent the air, the dense mass 
crowded about the King, the common people in 
their zeal and ignorance put their hands upon 
him, it would seem as if they could kiss his feet. 
The King was overcome, his emotion was visible; 
one old farmer observing this, placed his hand 
tenderly upon the King's shoulder, saying, "don't 
cry land-father, you have got us all back again." 
I was told this by one who heard it; and I class 
those simple words dropped from a peasant's lips, 
as among the few sayings worthy to be recorded. 
We sympathise with heroism, those brief words 
of Francis I. written to his mother after the battle 
of Pavia, "Tout est perdu hors l'honneur," ring 
in our ears, as if they were spoken yesterday, 
and the tender simplicity of the Saxon farmer 
has a grandeur in it also, which will in many 
a future day be remembered by his coun 
trymen. 



THE king's return. 39 

Their majesties crossed in the flat - bottomed 
ferry boat, and were received on the opposite 
shore by another dense mass of people, the noblest 
of the land, the working man and farmer, with 
their wives and children, all crowded up together, 
numbers having travelled far to be present. All 
brought together, not by the call of public author- 
ity, but by a feeling of affection and respect for 
their sovereign, in which I believe the whole of 
Europe sympathized. His probity and honor, his 
piety, his discretion, are now universally acknow- 
ledged, he is called "the good King of Saxony"; 
all are grieved for his painful position. 

As the ferry boat touched the shore, a crowd 
of ladies loaded with flowers came forward to 
greet the queen, there they stood with their pro- 
fusion of splendid exotics, but the queen already 
held in her hand a nosegay, which she had ac- 
cepted from a peasant child, a bunch of common 
Asters, and rank smelling Marygolds gathered 
in some cottage garden*, each represented the po- 
sition in life, each was offered from the same 
emotion of the heart, the deepest, the best. Chil- 
dren and ladies went forward strewing flowers 
in the path up to the palace door, and even when 



40 CHAPT. II. 

all was over, and the King within his domestic 
walls, the people would not disperse, the cheers 
resounded so heartily, that he re-appeared upon 
the balcony, and bowed his thanks for this great 
free will offering of affection and loyalty. 

It may not be inappropriate here to relate 
an incident that occurred at the Pillnitz ferry 
some two years since, in which the King played 
a touching part. There was an old soldier who 
had served Saxony nearly fifty years, he never 
attained a higher rank than that of corporal, but 
his son who had been brought up in the army 
was finally promoted to the rank of officer. "Old 
Klemm", as the corporal was familiarly called, 
disabled from service by his years, was appointed 
superintendent of the ferry, every body knew 
him, and every body felt disposed to press a little 
more than was required into the old man's hand; 
the King was particularly kind to him, and friendly. 
Two years ago the old man died at an advanced 
age, the funeral was to take place at Pillnitz; it 
was attended by all the officers of young Klemm's 
regiment; the old soldier was ferried across for 
the last time, and carried to the village cemetery, 
followed by a numerous cortege; at the gate of 



THE KING'S RETURN. 41 

the grave yard the King was waiting with a laurel 
crown in his hand, he advanced, and depositing 
it upon the coffin said, "thus I would do honor 
to the oldest, and one of the most faithful soldiers 
of my army". 



About a week after the King's return, the 
authorities of Dresden resolved he should re-enter 
his capital with public demonstrations of welcome, 
and a day was appointed. The people vied with 
each other in adorning their houses, and making 
it a general holiday: garlands and crowns, and 
the green and white colors of Saxony re-appeared 
everywhere*, all along the bridges, public buil- 
dings, and hotels, waved again the national flag: 
„now, was the winter of our discontent, made 
glorious summer", by this change of hue, might 
well be applied. The black flag was laid aside, 
and the green refreshed one's eye like spring 
starting suddenly from the gloom of winter. Yet 
beneath all this, I felt there lay a deep hidden 
feeling of sadness; the pall that covers the dead 
may be strewn with flower crowns, but they allay 
not the heart's anguish. 



42 CHAPT. II. 

The royal cortege entered by the Pirn'sche 
gate. In the first carriage the King and queen; 
in the second the prince and princess Royal; and 
in the third the prince and princess George. 

The people had assembled in crowds; the 
side-walks were thronged, the windows filled with 
spectators, the cheers were loud and earnest, the 
King and queen bowed their thanks, but their 
faces were pale and careworn; "verily the heart 
knoweth its own bitterness". 

They passed through the whole length of the 
city and entered the palace gates, where Prussian 
sentinels no longer stood, it is true, but Prussian 
soldiers filled the guard houses, and paraded daily 
under the King's windows; every one felt the 
false position of the Royal family. 

Affairs now began to assume a more cheerful 
aspect: the army returned into Saxony, the troops 
were settled in various provincial towns to await 
final arrangements ; court receptions were resumed, 
shop keepers cheered up, and so things fell into 
the old tracks. Christmas came, and in every 
house-hold the Christ-Tree was lighted. Around 
many of them, little groups were gathered whose 
fathers lay beneath the sod on the battle field 



the king's return. 43 

of Koeniggratz; many more were blessed by a 
father's return, but sad and thoughtful; there was 
no glee this year, only among the little children, 
unconscious of the terrible crisis that had been 
passing around them. 

In every quarter one felt that sorrow had 
cast its shadow; widows and children demanded 
relief; wounded soldiers filled the hospitals, all 
the benevolent societies were active ; the Diaconess 
Institute had its emissaries about, searching to do 
good among the squalid homes of the poor, and 
reports of misery from want of work, leading 
almost to starvation, opened many a rich man's 
purse to what he had never imagined before. 

It is a singular fact, and I do not know how 
my towns people will relish it, the most miserable, 
low abodes of poverty are in a district on the 
remote confines of the Neue Stadt, known by the 
name of NewYork! whether emigration goes forth 
from thence to seek the el dorado of the western 
world, or whether in derision, both being the last 
resource of broken-down people, there is no doubt 
here, that this fag-end of creation, is the name- 
sake of that other receptacle of the outpourings 
of the scum of the earth, who manage to reach 



44 CHAPT. II. 

its shores. This Dresden quarter lies north east 
far removed from the patrician quarter at the 
south west, where genuine New-Yorkers and 
others, display their wealth and elegance perfectly 
ignorant of the wretched miserable district and 
its half starved people, who have honored our 
great metropolis by adopting its name. 

In January the King of Saxony and the 
Princes his sons went to Berlin by invitation, to 
visit their Royal cousin. They were received not 
only cordially, but with an excess of friendly 
display, which we all thought savored of affecta- 
tion; an over -acted demonstration of friendship, 
to disguise the real feelings. We may be mista- 
ken, time will shew. What transpired at that 
interview, was not made public. In February the 
King of Prussia returned the visit, coming one 
day, and leaving the next; this was just before 
the opening of the great northern parliament. His 
arrival caused very little sensation among the 
Saxon people. The usual cortege of royal car- 
riages, and royal personages, were at the station 
platform to welcome him, but spectators were 
few and indifferent. It so happened that on the 
day of his arrival, the funeral of an old and re- 



the king's return. 45 

spected citizen took place, it is the custom in 
Dresden among old fashioned families to have 
the death knell tolled when the corpse leaves the 
house, and continued until it reaches the grave; 
the arrival of the King of Prussia was under 
these lugubrious sounds , and in crossing the bridge 
the cortege of Royalty, and the cortege of Death 
went on side by side. The omen was-- a sad one, 
every body seemed to feel it. An omen! to whom? 
that, the future alone will reveal. A lesson, yes, 
which all they that run may read. There they 
rode, the two conquerors; he of Germany in proud 
array and gratified ambition ; He , the conqueror 
of the World, the king of terrors, on a hearse, 
his car of triumph; the ominous death knell rang 
through the air; was it the dirge of Saxony? 



CHAPTER III. 
KOENIGSTEIN. 

Unscathed by War 
The fortress stands in proud humility; 
Grand type of him who bowed his princely head 
And simply uttered, "God thy will be done, 
Bless thou my people and the Vaterland". 

IVoenigstein the proud old fortress, has been 
forced to succumb, not by strength of arms, but 
subjected by the heavy pressure of political emer- 
gency. The Saxons retain a nominal power over 
it, but have been obliged to submit to its being 
garrisoned half by Prussians, reminding one of 
those delectable homes in Menageries, where a 
cat, a mouse, a hedgehog, and an owl live toge- 
ther, "a happy family", restrained by policy, but 
with the pleasurable desire lurking in their hearts, 



KOENIGSTEIN. 47 

to scratch each other's eyes out. The fortress of 
Koenigstein , like every thing else in these old 
lands, has its individual history, and it is worth 
recording, if only for its present importance as 
the key of Bohemia. 

On an isolated mountain rock rising 779 feet 
from the river, stands the fortress of Koenigstein, 
almost the only one in Europe which has never 
been taken. It rises from a plain, entirely de- 
tached from all other heights; the neighboring 
eminence, the Lilienstein, being three thousand 
yards distant. The Elbe makes a bend like a 
horse shoe, round the Koenigstein. The summit 
of the fortress measures 2500 ells (an ell is about 
two English feet). The side facing the Elbe is 
the longest, measuring 500 ells. The south east 
side, where numerous gaps in the rock necessi- 
tated over-archings, is 600 ells long, and the south 
west portion about the same; while the north west 
face is the smallest, and presents the deep inden- 
tation which has been formed into an entrance way. 

The rulers of Bohemia early recognized the 
importance of this post and safeguard against 
northern invasion, and as early as 1241 Koenig- 
stein is brought into notice as the place where 



48 CHAPT. III. 

Wenzeslas IV. and the bishop of Meissen, settled 
the boundary deeds, between the Sclavonic pro- 
vince Zagost, and the diocese of Meissen. From 
this we may fairly infer, that Koenigstein was in 
the thirteenth century (if not before), one of the 
boundary fortresses where the Bohemian king's 
stationed their chiefs. In 1396 Wenzeslas mort- 
gaged Koenigstein and Lilienstein, together with 
the castle and town of Pima, to his chamberlain Bur- 
chardt von Janowitz, for six hundred thousand 
Groschen, but should the king die without issue 
it was understood his successor must pay the full 
sum. Either the mortgage did not remain long 
in force, or its power was limited to farming the 
estates/ for in 1397 and 1402 we find the king- 
appointing captains to the fortress, then known by 
the Latin name, „Lapis regis" (King's Rock). 

In 1425, the Hussites completely destroyed 
all the buildings and fortifications on the Koenig- 
stein, which by this time had come into the pos- 
session of the Margrave of Meissen. 

Frederick the second, Elector of Saxony, in- 
herited the fortress from his uncle the Margrave, 
in 1436. The claims which Bohemia raised every 
now and then, were all laid at rest by the treaty 



KOENIGSTEIK. 49 

of Eger, in 1459 , and Koenigstein remained in 
the undisputed possession of Saxony. It is in- 
teresting to note that by this treaty ; Albert the 
youngest of the princes kidnapped from the castle 
of Altenburg, 1455, ancestor of the present royal 
Saxon family, became son in law to the King of 
Bohemia, to whom he had been compelled to serve 
as an hostage, five years before. That no strate- 
gic importance attached itself to Koenigstein in 
those times, is clear from the fact that the Elector 
Frederick farmed it out to private individuals for 
three years, and later gave the governor of 
Meissen a life interest in it for 30,000 Groschen. 
Then we hear of the provincial governor of Pirna 
receiving the property, together with the accom- 
panying Elbe dues for 30,000 Groschen ; but these 
leases from the King to private persons seem 
only to have included the use of the land, while 
electoral officials continued the superintendence. 
On the death of the Elector in 1500, his son 
George succeeded him. He caused the walls and 
buildings at Koenigstein to be restored, but for 
a very peaceable object he having formed the 
plan of establishing a cloister there. He requested 

twelve monks should be sent from a Celestine 

4 



50 CHAPT. III. 

convent in the neighborhood of Zittaw, but the 
monks and the duke soon became mutually 
dissatisfied with each other , and when the latter 
finally ordered an investigation to be made in 
their affairs , they, fearing the duke's severity, 
disappeared, with the exception of two, whom he 
sent back to their prior, to be dealt with as he 
thought best. 

With the death of this Elector, 1539, began 
to a certain degree a new epoch for the place. 
From this date, it was devoted to purely military 
purposes, without undergoing however any mate- 
rial change. About 1550, they commenced hewing 
out the famous well through the rock, a labor 
only accomplished in 42 years. This well is cut 
through sand -stone, its diameter is twelve feet, 
and its depth to the water six hundred Saxon 
feet. The water is raised at the rate of a ton in 
ten minutes by a tread-mill worked by four men. 
Among other things the Elector John George 
caused the Magdelenburg to be built for court 
fetes; beneath this edifice was hewn out an im- 
mense cellar, where three mammoth wine casks 
were successively placed. The last and largest 
of these tuns, was finished in 1725. It was thirty 



KOENIGSTEIN. 51 

four feet long, and twenty four feet high; the 
upper part of the cask was reached by thirty 
two winding steps. It was encircled with a rai- 
ling , and so arranged that a large party could 
assemble on it to dine. 

Under the next Elector, John George II. 
the military works at the fortress were continued ; 
he caused the old cloister to be pulled down, and 
with the stones erected the present garrison cha- 
pel , and furnished the steeple with three bells; 
heretofore the commencement of the service had 
been announced by the sentinel striking on a bar 
of iron, so soon as he saw the clergyman ap- 
proach. In this reign occurred the incident which 
gave rise to the name of the "page's bed". There 
was a grand entertainment given at the fortress, 
in honor of the English minister Sir William 
Swan; on this occasion a page named Heinrich 
von Grunau became very much intoxicated, and 
about midnight staggered toward an embrasure, 
climbed over it, and to cool himself lay down 
upon the shelf of rock outside, unconscious that 
the slightest motion would precipitate him down 
below. Towards the end of the festivities about 
dawn, the page was missed; they hunted for him 



52 chapt. in. 

a long time in vain; finally he betrayed his po- 
sition to a sentinel by snoring. An officer of the 
guard after securing him firmly by his clothes, 
announced the discovery; the whole court ap- 
peared, and after all danger had been obviated 
by binding the page firmly with cords, the Elec- 
tor summoned all the trumpeters to blow a grand 
flourish; Grunau awoke, he thought himself in 
the dance hall, and as if speaking to another page 
said, "I will come directly Schonberg". 

A second trumpet blast, together with the 
laughter of the assembled crowd, and the cons- 
ciousness of being bound, soon aroused him to a 
comprehension of his situation; he was carefully 
drawn inside the casement and freed from his 
bonds; shame now seized him, he fell at the 
Elector's feet and sued for pardon. The Elector 
jokingly said, "In future go to bed through your 
chamber door, and not through a port hole". In 
spite of the paltry pension of sixteen thalers 
a year, Grunau did not starve to death! He lived 
to reach the age of 107, and in his 97 th year 
went up to visit, "The page's bed". 

It was during the reign of Augustus II. sur- 
named the Strong, whose court was so renowned 



KOENIGSTEIN. 53 

for headlong extravagance, and pleasure running 
riot, that the stern old fortress partook in a mea- 
sure of the follies of the period reaching from 
the year 1679 to 1733. During this time the 
command was in the hands of Friederich Wilhelm 
von Kyau, a man distinguished as much for his 
wit and gaiety, as for his military capacity. 
Festivities of all kinds, balls, illuminations, fire- 
works and theatricals, followed each other in 
rapid succession; the Elector and his court often 
spent days together at the merry old fortress. 
But amidst all this folly, the strengthening and 
ornamenting of Koenigstein was never lost sight 
of; numerous bomb-proof buildings, and officers', 
quarters were erected, and the huge cask already 
mentioned, was put into the cellar. The mania 
for building these big tuns, had inspired several 
German princes, but that of Heidelberg alone 
remains at the present day, a witness of one of 
the absurdities of the past. 

On the northwestern aspect of the fortress, 
overlooking the wide inner country, rises con- 
spicuously the great building containing the pri- 
sons of state. If walls had tongues, as well as 
ears, these could recount many a strange tale? 



54 CHAPT. III. 

and none more strange than that hallucination of 
the last century , which led men into the belief 
in Alchemy, and peopled the prisons with Arch- 
imposters. At the close of the thirty years war, 
and for long time after, Germany was overrun 
with vagrants, rogues, and adventurers from every 
land. Bands of strolling actors; itinerant char- 
latan doctors; gipsey fortune tellers; treasure dig- 
gers and exorcists. "The marvellous Venetian 
remedies, and the Harlequin jacket, mask, and 
felt hat of the Italian fool, found their way over 
the Alps, and were added to the old stock as 
new fooleries." An extract from Freitag's "pic- 
tures of old Germany", will convey better than I 
can the state of things at the period. Besides 
the numerous companies who wandered about 
either modestly on foot, or in carts, vagrants of 
higher pretentions rode through the country, some 
of them still more objectionable. To be able to 
prognosticate the future, to gain dominion over 
the spirits of the elements, to make gold, and to 
renew the vigor of youth in old age, had for 
many centuries been the desire of the covetous 
and inquisitive. Those who promised these things 
to the Germans were generally Italians or other 



KOENIGSTEIN. 55 

foreigners, or natives of the country, who as the 
old saying was, "had been thrice to Rome". 

When the new zeal for the restoration of the 
church brought good and bad alike before the 
tribunal of the Inquisition in Italy, the emigration 
of those whose lives were insecure, must have 
been very numerous. It is probably from the life 
of one of these charlatans, that the history of 
Faust has been derived, and construed into the 
old popular tale. After Luther's death it is evi- 
dent they penetrated into the courts of the Ger- 
man princes. It was an adventurer of this de- 
scription named Jerome Scotus, who in 1593 in 
Coburg, estranged the unhappy Duchess Anna of 
Saxe Coburg from her husband, and brought her 
into his own power by villanous arts. Vain were 
the endeavors of the Duke to obtain the extra- 
dition of Scotus from Hamburg, where he lived 
long in princely luxury. 

There was at Berlin about the time of Sco- 
tus, one Leonhard Turneysser, a charlatan, who 
worked at gold making, and drawing of hor- 
oscopes ; he escaped by flight the dismal fate that 
awaited and almost always overtook these men, 
when not prompt enough to change their location. 



56 CHAPT. III. 

The Emperor Rudolph became also a great 
adept ; and amalgamated in the gold crucible both 
his political honor, and his own Imperial throne. 
The princes of the seventeenth century at least 
shew the intense interest of dilettantes. During 
the war the art of making gold became very 
desirable. At that period therefore the adepts 
thronged to the armies ; the more needy the times, 
the more numerous and brilliant were the stories 
of alchemy. It was proposed by an enthusiastic 
worshipper of Gustavus Adolphus, to make gold 
out of lead, and in the presence of the Emperor 
Ferdinand III. many pounds of gold were to be 
produced with one grain of red powder from 
quicksilver ; a gigantic medal was also to be struck 
from the same metal. After the peace the adepts 
resided at all the courts; there were few dwellings 
where the hearth and the retorts were not heated 
for secret operations. But every one had to be- 
ware how he trifled with the reigning powers, 
as the paws of the princely lions might be raised 
against him for his destruction. Those who could 
not make gold were confined in prison, and those 
who were under suspicion, and yet could fabricate 
something, were equally placed in confinement. 



KOENIGSTEIN. 57 

The Italian count Cajetan was hanged in a gilded 
dress , on a gallows at Kustrin, the beams of 
which were adorned with cut gold, for having 
failed! At Wurtemberg a gallows was erected made 
of the iron which the Alchymist Honauer had 
attempted to turn into gold; he himself first ador- 
ned it 1597, then the Jew Suss, then three Al- 
chymists in succession, Montani, Muscheler and 
von Mtilenfels, and finally a thief who had at- 
tempted to steal the iron of the same gallows. 

There is no doubt with Alchy mists and 
Astrologers that they began by believing them- 
selves in the art they practised ; but they had 
strong doubts of their own power of accomplish- 
ing , and they deceived others, either because 
they were seeking the means to attain to greater 
results, or because they wished to appear to the 
world to understand what they considered of im- 
portance. These were not the worst of the lot. 

The most mischievous of all were perhaps, 
the skilful imposters who appeared in France, 
England and Germany with foreign titles of dis- 
tinction, shining with the glimmer of secret art, 
sometimes the propagators of the most shameful 
vices, shadowy figures who by their worldly wis- 



58 CHAPT. III. 

dom, and the limited intercourse of nations, were 
enabled to bring themselves into notoriety. Their 
experience, their deceptions, their secret successes 
for a long period overpoweringly excited the 
fancies of Germans; even Goethe considered it 
worth his while to repair to the spot, and set 
on foot serious investigations as to the origin of 
Cagliostro. 

After the war, astrology and horoscopes fell 
into disuse. The princes continued to seek for 
the red powder, and unknown tincture, while the 
people dug for money pots. Dilettante occupation 
with physical science, introduced again among 
the people the ancient divining rod, by which 
springs, murders, thefts, and always hidden gold, 
were to be discovered, and the uperior classes 
even were tinctured with the belief of men en- 
dowed with supernatural powers. 

On the sixth of August 1706, there arrived 
at the fortress of Koenigstein a stranger accom- 
panied by three servants, and escorted by an 
officer of standing, who ordered that he should 
be accommodated in the best possible manner, 
but be kept under strict surveillance; his name 
was not divulged, but he had been sent in a royal 



KOENIGSTEIN. 59 

equipage. This proved to be the alchymist Bott- 
ger. A fugitive from Berlin, where he had failed 
in his experiments in search of the philosopher's 
stone; in the year 1701, he was encouraged by 
Augustus the Strong to come to Dresden , where 
he was established near the schloss in a private 
laboratory, and for three years continued his ex-, 
periments at the king's expense ; here it was that 
in 1 703, he discovered the red earth, and it was 
proclaimed the age of gold was at hand. About 
this period temptations were held out to him by 
the king of Sweden, to which he lent a willing 
ear, but the king of Saxony who had the prize 
within his grasp, gave the peremptory order that 
the Alchymist should forthwith be transported to 
the fortress of Koenigstein, there detained, and 
allowed to prosecute his experiments. The result 
we all know; the red earth developed into the 
beautiful porcelain , which became world renow- 
ned. Bottger laid the foundation of the fabric at 
Meissen in the year 1710, and superintended it 
till his death. 



60 chapt. m. 

About fourteen years after Bottger's confine- 
ment at Koenigstein ; another Alchymist appeared 
there, whose story more filled with incident, had 
not so agreeable a termination. John Hector baron 
von Klettenberg, born at Franckfort, was forced 
to fly his native city, he having killed in duel, 
a young nobleman named von Stalburg. He 
roamed through the length and breadth of Ger- 
many under an assumed name ; but managed his 
affairs so well that he was enabled to keep a 
secretary and a valet, and introduced himself at 
the court of Weimar as the baron von Wildeck; 
he was recognized by one of the chamberlains 
who reported him to the duke, but this last kindly 
allowed him to depart quietly and unmolested. 
He came to Dresden, and having given out he 
had discovered a new metal, was taken into the 
employment of the king, in which he remained 
three years. He wrote a book denouncing all 
the old gold makers as false Alchymists, he alone 
had accomplished the art, and had made the im- 
portant discovery. In his experiments he pro- 
duced some gold by means of a ruse. He was 
honored by the king with all sorts of titles and 
emoluments, and was exempted by special favor 



KOENIGSTEIN. 61 

from all legal jurisdiction, the king alone having 
power over him. He was given a house near 
the schloss, and three thousand thalers to furnish 
a laboratory, also fifteen hundred thalers monthly 
to carry on the experiments, and a salary of 
eighteen thousand yearly. He was nine months 
preparing to begin operations. Meanwhile arrived 
from Vienna a baron von Reven and settled him- 
self near Dresden. He brought forward claims 
to a very large amount against Klettenberg who 
shielding himself behind his exemption from the 
law, refused to pay; von Reven appealed to the 
king, who angrily ordered his alchymist off to be 
tried, and sent him to the Hohnstein for two 
years, where he was shut up in a dark dungeon. 
The castle of Hohnstein lay among the precipi- 
tous rocks of the Saxon Switzerland, and one of 
the pinnacles in its neighborhood still goes by 
the name of Klettenberg. At the end of this 
term, he was sent to Koenigstein where he was 
received with open arms by the facetious com- 
mander von Kyau, who invited him to dinner, 
and regaled him afterwards with the king's order 
that he should be strictly incarcerated, and allowed 
sixteen groschen a day for his maintenance. From 



62 CHAPT. III. 

here he made two attempts to escape. With a 
penknife which he had managed to conceal in 
his shoe, he worked seven weeks, making a hole 
in the flooring of his chamber in the Greorgen- 
burg, the building in which he was confined. Tea- 
ring his mantle into strips he made a cord by 
which he let himself down over the rocks and 
escaped as far as the village of Pfaffendorf, where 
the peasants detected him by his red silk stock- 
ings with silver clocks, and carried him back to 
the Koenigstein, where he was placed this time 
in a room paved with stone. 

The second attempt was through a window, 
but he missed his footing, and fell sixty feet into 
the ditch, which being at the time filled with 
snow, he escaped death; he was discovered by 
the sentinel, and brought again into the fortress. 
Upon the demand of the city of Franckfurt that 
he should be hung, and on account of various other 
misdemeanors, he was finally condemned to be 
executed. When the commander of the fortress 
came to announce the sentence to him, he laugh- 
ingly answered, "The bird still sings upon the 
tree out of which my coffin will be made". How- 
ever when a catholic priest was sent to shrive 



KOENIGSTEIN. 63 

him, he learnt they were in earnest , whereupon 
he dressed himself in a court suit of velvet em- 
broidered in gold , with a fashionable elonge 
peruque on his head, and thus equipped went 
forth; as he laid his head upon the block his last 
request was to be placed in his coffin dressed as 
he was, and that they would replace the peruque 
upon his head; he was executed in 1720. 

This curious trait of the weakness of human 
nature, the desire of appearing well after death, 
is by no means unusual in people of the world. 
Pope's sarcasm on the dying countess who called 
Betty, "to put a little rouge", is true to nature. 
The last request of Lord Byron to his valet was 
that his feet should never be uncovered. The 
last request of a celebrated beauty who had mar- 
velously retained it to a very advanced age, was 
that after death her face should be veiled, and no 
one allowed to lift it, came within my own know- 
ledge; hundreds of similar instances might be 
quoted. Klettenberg sinned no more than many 
of his fellows in this respect. 



64 CHAPT. III. 

Connected by a small bridge with the Georgian 
bastion, on the Elbe side of the Fortress, stands 
a little tower, called the Hunger Thurm; it was 
a place of punishment, and its name but too vi- 
vidly impresses one with the remembrance of the 
cruelties practised in the middle ages; various 
traditions are connected with it, but trivial and 
unreliable; sure it is however, that a deep narrow 
dungeon once existed, capped by the little tower 
built a short way beyond the precipice; that the 
tower still exists, and that the dungeon is filled 
up, but the terrible name has ever been retained, 
suggestive of suffering, such as we know was 
enforced under the jurisdiction of the old law. 
The modern tradition trivial and unreliable also, 
as were the older ones, yet clings to the tower. 
It tells it has become a place of torture now for 
domestic fowls! Chanticleer now sounds its warder 
horn, and the executions take place within the 
precincts of the tower walls. 

Sometimes it is called the "Turk's dungeon", 
in memory of one said to have escaped from 
there. To us in the present day, a Turk is an 
exceptional animal, confined within certain boun- 
daries of his own, beyond which he does not care 



KOENIG STEIN. 65 

to show himself, but in 1684, the invasion of the 
Turks, called in as allies to Hungary in revolt 
against Austria, was a terrible fact, and there 
assembled beneath the walls of Vienna a force of 
300,000 strong besieging the city, which was reduced 
almost to famine. Then Saxony, Bavaria and 
Franconia joined to march to its succor, but were 
anticipated by Sobieski, at the head of his brave 
Poles, who threw himself upon the Mussulmans; 
the battle soon became general, and the allies 
arriving, it continued fifteen hours; finally the 
Turks gave way in disorder, leaving their camp 
and 25,000 men in the hands of their conquerors. 
It may well be then, that Saxony brought back 
in its suite a Turk or two, and found homes for 
them on the Eoenigstein. In the latter part of 
the sixteenth century, 1598, the Hungarians had 
been mortal enemies with the Turks, and it was 
an ancient custom that none should wear a feather 
in his cap, unless he had killed a Turk, and he 
shewed the number of his slain enemies by the 
number of his feathers; thence the proverb, "that's 
another feather in your cap". 

The lettre de cachet system existed in 
Saxony also in the last century, if not under the 



66 CFtAPT. III. 

same name, at least as arbitrary and mischievous, 
as ever disgraced the annals of France. Not only 
were state offences punished by incarceration within 
the prisons of Koenigstein, but the whims and 
vengeance of individuals carried prisoners to the 
same. A domestic incident of the kind which 
occmTed in the last century, has been made the 
subject of a Novel. The son of Sebastian Bach, 
dared to lift his eyes to the daughter of the 
minister Bruhl ; she returned his passion; the fear 
of a mesalliance prompted the powerful favourite 
to demand an order of imprisonment from his 
facile monarch, who was prevailed upon by the 
plea, that the young man was deranged, and might 
prove dangerous. Later his father through in- 
fluential persons, obtained a hearing from the 
king, who convinced of the injustice committed, 
secretly signed an order of release, and gave it 
to Sebastian Bach, unknown to Bruhl. The 
father hastened 1o accomplish his purpose; ar- 
riving within a short distance of the fortress, he 
remained hidden in the forest, while a trusty 
messenger left him, and proceeded to present the 
order, which should liberate the son. Hours of 
suspense passed; at length in the darkness of the 



KOENIGSTEItf. 67 

night, the messenger returned accompanied by 
the young man, the father opened his arms to 
embrace him — his form was there indeed but 
reason had fled. — The poor young lover had 
in truth found his prison, the Tower of Oblivion. 



It was during the reign of Augustus III. son, 
and successor to "the Strong", that Frederick the 
Great invaded Saxony, August 1756, in spite of 
her declared neutrality. Frederick pretended he 
had information of a secret understanding between 
the Elector, and the Austrian and Russian em- 
pires. Augustus a weak and indolent prince, 
entirely guided by his minister Bruhl, allowed 
himself to be persuaded to take refuge in the 
fortress, it was from those walls he beheld the 
first scene in the tragedy of the "seven years war". 
The audacity of the king of Prussia, and his 
unwillingness to believe in the neutrality of Sax- 
ony, hastened the catastrophe. The Saxon troops 
put upon a war footing in haste, were insufficiently 
provided; Augustus sent couriers off to every 
sovereign in Europe, crying out against the in- 



68 CHAPT. III. 

justice of Frederick, and imploring aid. The 
Saxon army assembled at Pirna, was soon hem- 
med in by the enemy; the choice was offered the 
Elector to join Prussia , or be considered her 
enemy; Augustus replied he would not fight 
against his old friend and ally Maria Theresa; 
Frederick advanced, and gave battle to the Austrians 
at Lowositz, where the Prussian arms triumphed, 
and prevented the junction of the Austrian and 
Saxon forces. On hearing of this defeat, the 
Saxon general Ratowski resolved upon a forced 
inarch, breaking through the Prussian line, and 
endeavoring to join the Austrian force, which had 
retained its position, in spite of the recent triumph 
of the enemy. At midnight the Saxons began 
their march ; every impediment which nature could 
offer, presented itself; the heavens were dark, 
and the rain poured down in torrents; this how- 
ever favored them, and they escaped the obser- 
vation of the Prussian sentinels ; but after passing 
the Elbe on bridges thrown over in haste, there 
remained the high hills on the opposite shore to 
scramble over, no roads, nothing to direct their 
way , but the crooked footpaths worn by the 
peasants; the drawing up of cannon over such 



KOENIGSTEIN. 69 

rough places, the incessant rains, all combined to 
retard their movements, though the Saxon zeal 
and perseverance were admirable, but time was 
wanting. The Elector who had retired to the 
fortress, received a letter at five in the morning 
describing the obstacles which retarded the ad- 
vance of his troops, but saying they would be 
overcome before nightfall. Hardly had the letter 
been despatched when the Prussians were , down 
upon them, traversing the heights of Pirna, di- 
rectly through the abandoned camp ; the Saxons 
were attacked in the rear, no hope before them, 
cannon imbedded in the mud, horses dying from 
fatigue and want of food, and men who had not 
eaten for twenty four hours. Heroism was of 
no avail, the hour of doom had struck, there re- 
mained no resource but to surrender. The marshal 
Ratowski assembled a council of war; the gene- 
rals were of but one opinion, their decision was 
transmitted to the Elector. Augustus uttered a 
cry of despair: "Surrender, while the Austrians 
are there! surrender, without firing one gun! have 
my generals thought well on what they are about ?" 
So writes the unfortunate Augustus, and at the 
same time he sends a private billet to Ratowski, 



70 CHAPT. III. 

urging him to do all that humanity can suggest, 
for his unfortunate troops. Finally the sacrifice 
was accomplished, the whole army capitulated, 
and Saxony became a mere Prussian province. 

Up to the present period strangers have been 
allowed to visit the fortress, but always under 
military restrictions. The rail -road to Prague 
passes under its shadow, and at the Koenigstein 
station a little town has sprung up; from this a 
toilsome ascent, winding among the woods on the 
side of the mountain, brings you to a slanting 
way, cut in the living rock, which rises on either 
hand like a wall; thence over a drawbridge into 
a portcullis entrance, through the solid rock, the 
only point by which access can be obtained. 
When the draw - bridge is removed in time of 
war, this portcullis entrance is left high up in the 
cliff. Scaling the walls, which are perpendicular 
in the whole circuit of the fortress, was deemed 
an impossibility till within a few years, when 
for a wager, a person was found to undertake it, 
and at the risk of his life succeeded; that hero 
was a chimneysweep; he reached the top, but his 
exhaustion was such, it was thought he would 
have died; he lived however to enjoy his fame. 



KOENIGSTEIX. 71 

The platform on which the fortress is built is 
several acres in extent, containing pleasant walks 
and gardens, and groves of forest trees; it can 
be made to furnish pasturage for two cows, and 
supply garden - stuff for a full garrison of six 
hundred men. In times of peace the number is 
limited to two hundred. There is a regulation that 
all artillery officers, serve their turn one year in 
the fortress, and so far is it from being con- 
sidered an exile from society, I have never heard 
an officer's lady express other than the great en- 
joyment she experienced living in barracks at 
Koenigstein. The salubrity of the air conduces 
probably very much to that contented frame of 
mind, atmospheric influences adding or taking 
from our pleasurable sensations, go very far in 
this world to make up the sum of our happiness. 
A clever French woman once said, "tout notre 
bonheur depend de la maniere dont notre sang 
circule". — It is indeed a glorious old place, with 
its magnificent outlook, its solitary grandeur, its 
proud bearing, which may well appropriate the 
words, 

"I am monarch of all I survey". 



72 CHAPT. III. 

A monarch indeed, "the king's rock" as the 
old Wends dubbed it, and with its power and 
strength, is mingled the beauty of nature. While 
wandering beneath its lofty forest trees, I felt, I 
too could be very happy if my doom were fixed 
within the precincts of the grand, old Koenigstein . 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 

As on some mimic stage the puppets play, 
And strut in tinselled robes and paper crowns, 
Making proud royalty a paistboard thing 
For men to smile at. 

lhe great Prussian invasion, which within a 
year has submerged the little German powers, 
leads every one to reflection. The newly applied 
Napoleonic term, "conglomeration", is adopted; 
not annexation, be it observed; more the idea 
of fusion, the pouring in of a foreign element. 
The word conglomeration serves a good many 
turns, masses of pudding stone for example. I 
deem those odd bits of territory of all forms and 
sizes belong to this latter category, certainly there 
has been no ring of metal in them. 



74 CHAPT. IV. 

A glance back at the history of the minor 
courts, will not be inopportune nor unamusing in 
the present era, and though the sketch be but a 
superficial one, it will at least suffice to give some 
idea why Napoleon looked upon them with such 
supreme contempt, when they prostrated them- 
selves at his feet. Since his day, things have 
assumed a better aspect; the struggle between 
the lavish expenditure of princely depravity, and 
plebeian means to sustain the effort, with the 
desire to appear what they were not, all that has 
passed away with their perukes, lace ruffs, and 
lappel satin waistcoats. Thereafter they shrurnk 
into their shells, and were known only as places 
capable of furnishing husbands to protestant prin- 
cesses, or others. 

These little princedoms have had their uses 
too in civilizing society; though ostensibly preten- 
tious on narrow grounds, they patronized art, and 
men of letters, thus diffusing taste and learning 
in small places which would otherwise have lapsed 
into mere country towns, indifferent to every thing 
but their own material interests. This was the 
bright side of the German organization in sepa- 
rate states. 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 75 

This division favorised and multiplied the 
means, and the fruits of culture ripened the quicker. 
Each little court, or city, had it in its power to 
direct the advance of science and learning: each 
university stood apart uninfluenced by the pre- 
ponderance of others. Centralization in this re- 
spect has not worked well in France, nor will it 
in Germany. 

These Liliputian courts, with their standing 
armies, ministers of war, ministers of finance and 
the rest, were viewed with undisguised disdain 
by Napoleon; conscious of their own weakness, 
they promptly conglomerated themselves into 
"the confederation of the Rhine", and allowed 
Napoleon to use them for his own purposes. 

There was one little spot on the continent 
of Europe overlooked by this mighty conqueror, 
and which by its very insignificance, became of 
great use to its neighbors ; I refer to Kniphausen, 
on the north sea, which counted barely two hun- 
dred inhabitants. It is only a countship, con- 
taining a castle and a village, situated at the ex- 
treme end of the tongue of land which Olden- 
bourg protrudes into the sea, meeting Heligoland 
by a short distance. 



76 CHAPT. IV. 

The great pride of the family consists in 
having always been an independent state, possess- 
ing the right of its own colors; so under the 
great flag of Kniphausen they defied Napoleon 
himself. 

This is a sample left of those small count- 
ships the follies of which were almost incredible 
in the last century. Barons of the empire even 
held a petty court, and aped the pretensions and 
titles, nay even the military show of their power- 
ful neighbors. A count von Limburg Styrum 
kept a corps of hussars, consisting of a Colonel 
six officers, and two privates. There were court 
counselors attached to the smallest baronetcies 
belonging to the empire, and in Franconia and 
Suabia the great lords had their private gallows, 
the symbol of high jurisdiction. 

The principality of Reuss for example is di- 
vided into two branches. The older rules over 
a territory 6 1 / 8 square miles in extent with a 
population of about 43,000. The younger branch 
owns 15 square miles of territory with a popula- 
tion of 86,000; the united army contingency 
amounts to about a thousand men. A curious 
custom has always existed in this family, all its 



THE MIXOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 77 

princes, bear the same name, "Henry", they are 
numbered accordingly, and you hear of prince 
Henry de Reuss 70 th or 84 th &c. as may be; it 
is said when they have reached the numerical 
100, that they begin over again. Frederick the 
Great once asked a prince de Reuss, "in your 
family are they numbered like hackney coaches" ? 
"No Sire", replied he "like Kings". Frederick 
pleased, took him into favor. The origin of so 
many small principalities arose from the policy of the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of partitioning the 
inheritance among all the sons of the family. The 
great houses of the empire thus were frequently 
reduced to insignificance. Saxony was divided 
into two branches, one reigning at Wittenberg 
and the other at Lauenburg. Brandenburg, Bruns- 
wick, and Misnia were likewise so split. Bavaria 
also into two parts: strange the princes should 
not have seen the absurdity of so weakening their 
hereditary domains! 

When Napoleon enforced the continental sys- 
tem, and every port was closed against English 
commerce, little Krriphausen, overlooked in the 
general order, became a regular depot, and pro- 
hibited merchandise found its way through this 



78 CHAPT. IV. 

tiny estate, into the warehouses of its mighty 
neighbors, verifying the fable of the Lion and the 
mouse. Thinking of the minor courts of Ger- 
many, suggested this place to my memory, and 
the absurdity of its pretensions. A friend of mine 
(within twenty years) was in the Austrian con- 
sul's office in New -York one day, when a man 
came in, of an ordinary stamp, dressed in a frieze 
great coat, and asked to see the consul. Mr. B. 
presented himself, when the other said, "I want 
your help in signing some papers, I am come to 
abdicate". The word was novel on our side of 
the Atlantic, and excited surprise; "I am the 
Herrschaft von Kniphausen, resumed the stranger, 
I have sold my birthright to my brother, I wish 
the bargain clenched, in order that I may invest 
my funds in western lands". So the next gene- 
ration of the Kniphausen's will be found taking root 
among our wild western forests, and their story 
will contribute some day to the tales of romance 
hitherto wanting in our new land, but which must 
rapidly accumulate from the mass of strange ma- 
terial pouring in from every portion of the globe. 
Of Kniphausen I have no more to say; may it 
rest in peace, among the fogs of the north sea. 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 79 

When I say the small courts of Germany, 
I literally mean them, Saxe Weimar, Saxe Gotha, 
Saxe Coburg, Saxe Meiningen, Nassau, Darm- 
stadt, Carlsruhe, Hesse Cassel ; there are a bunch 
of them at once ! Gloomy tiresome little places to 
live in, where people walk about without any 
purpose in life, a sort of social hermitage for 
scholars, who in the everlasting monotony enjoy 
that quiet which calms the brain, and which they 
could not find in the more irritating atmosphere 
of large cities ; I picture to myself the court circle 
too as a sort of orrery, or planitary machine, 
where his highness the Erzherzog, is the great 
luminary round which revolve in regular rota- 
tion, bodies, the measure of whose titles far ex- 
ceeds the measure of their usefulness. There you 
have of course a minister of foreign affairs, and 
a minister of the interior, and a minister of finance, 
and a minister of war; then follow the grand 
dignitaries of the court: the grand Master, the 
grand marshal of the court, the grand chamber- 
lain, Grand master of ceremonies, the first Grand 
huntsman, Grand master of the horse, vice Grand 
huntsman, then the corps diplomatique, not to 
mention the ladies of honor, and all the feminine 



80 CHAPT. IV. 

array belonging to the above Grandees, and one 
can comprehend what complicated little machines 
these courts are! 

In one of my summer wanderings I stopped 
two or three days at Hesse Cassel, one of the 
most important of these hereditary princedoms, 
and which has its history too, a prominent chapter 
of which tells that the then styled Elector, set the 
example of selling his subjects to foreign sov- 
ereigns for troops to carry on their wars ; among 
those who took advantage of the traffic was George 
the III. of England, who sent them over to fight 
his battles in America, during the war of Inde- 
pendence. The territory of Hesse has been sub- 
divided, patched up again, and bits appropriated 
here and there by its neighbors, till it becomes 
perplexing to discover the meum and teum, which 
however are very unimportant to me , and my 
remarks. 

The city of Hesse Cassel is divided into two 
parts, the old town, black and dirty, and the new 
one, airy and spacious, the principal feature of 
which is the Koenigsplatz , a great oval space on 
which the hotels and other buildings face, giving 
an air of grandeur and importance to a place 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 81 

which only counts thirty thousand inhabitants. 
The churches , libraries ; and museums are not 
deemed worthy a visit by old experienced tra- 
vellers; those who have seen so much better things, 
and who consequently experience at Cassel an 
indescribable relief, for if there be one fever worse 
than another, it is that of a conscientious seer of 
sights; so we remained in supine idleness all day 
Saturday, having so timed our visit in order to 
be present Sunday, at the exhibition of water works 
at Wilhelmshohe, the Elector's summer palace, 
where, as at Versailles, the great fountains only 
play twice a week. I have been told since by a 
connoisseur, that the collection of pictures in the 
palace is the finest after Dresden, in North Ger- 
many, but having been strictly private, has hitherto 
remained unknown to travellers, but under the 
new order of things, it is to be opened to the 
public. 

At two in the afternoon we left the Wilhelms 
gate of Cassel from which in a strait line, stret- 
ches an avenue, shaded by lime trees, the vista 
terminated by the colossal figure of Hercules 
standing on a hill top. 



82 CHAPT. IV. 

The day was fine, and troops of citizens in 
their holiday clothes were scattered about; the more 
sedate plodding onwards along the strait road, 
the young and agile plunging into the wood paths, 
"thro' brake, thro' briar", and reaching finally the 
same end we each proposed, the "Giant water 
fall" : unable to compete with any of them, I was 
borne along in a low open carriage, from which 
I could view men and things at my ease. The 
driver drew up exactly in front of the Giant 
stairs, a flight of white marble steps, known as 
the cascade of the Carlsberg. This flight of steps, 
is nine hundred feet long, leading up to the sta- 
tue of Hercules, 31 feet high, of beaten copper. 
A carriage road zigzagging up the side of the 
mountain conducts you to the foot of the statue, 
but I was content to view it from below, my day 
was past for climbing towers, Herculean legs &c. 
I am told eight persons can stand in the hollow 
of his club, and out of a little window formed in 
it, enjoy a prospect extending as far as the Hartz. 
The octagon building which serves as a pedestal 
for the statue, is fancifully called the temple of 
the winds, and from the base of this, the great 
flight of steps descends. About midway up the 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 83 

stair, upon a sort of platform, a rudely cut statue 
of the Giant Enceladus lies upon his back, with 
a mountain of rocks heaped upon his breast; ori- 
ginally there spouted from his mouth a jet of 
water 50 feet high, but that no longer plays. 
This giant Enceladus, was one of the band who 
conspired against Jove, and who, warring against 
Olympus, were routed and fled; Minerva flung 
after Enceladus the island of Sicily, and it is 
from his struggles to free himself, that the con- 
vulsions of Etna proceed. The aquatic staircase, 
with the temple and statue surmounting it, and 
the extravagant works connected with them, are 
said to have employed two thousand workmen 
for fourteen years. When the whole was com- 
pleted, the cost was found to be so enormous 
that all record of it was destroyed in order that 
it should never be revealed. On both sides of 
the aquatic stair, a space is left for pedestrians 
to climb; a ridge of marble dividing it from the 
water course, but 

"Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb 
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar. 
Ah, who can tell how many a soul sublime 
Has felt the influence of malignant stairs, 
And waged with patience an eternal war. 

6* 



84 CHAPT. IV. 

somehow the jingle of that verse seemed to suit 
at the moment , the time and place, but far be it 
from me to admire the ridiculous extravagancies 
of that age of Louis XIV., which led to so many 
poor imitations among minor sovereigns, whose 
people were ground down under taxes to pay for 
absurd, useless constructions, which only served 
as monuments of vanity to those who erected 
them, and wonderment to us in this our day of 
better taste, and practical utility. 

While such reflections were occupying my 
mind, the sluices were opened, and the water 
came deliberately pouring from step to step, 
until finally the whole were gained, and the white 
froth rose, and you were beginning to feel an 
interest in the mere sight off rushing water, when 
snap! and we were off hurrying down to the 
Devil's bridge, where the water was to perform 
the second act of the farce, the whole performance 
being restricted to 50 minutes. I was the first 
to arrive by the road, in front of the new scene ; 
the crowd of pedestrians coming round another 
way. I saw before me a chasm between two 
hills, covered with dark fir trees, which shed their 
blackness upon it; across this chasm was cast 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 85 

high up, a one - arched bridge with nothing deve- 
lish about it that I could divine, however it might 
have obtained its cognomen. 

Presently, left and right emerging from the 
wood, appeared now a group of girls with red 
petticoats, looped dresses, and comical little hats; 
then a knot of flat- capped students; here an old 
man leaning on his stick, there a young one in 
velvet shooting jacket and flapped hat; one after 
another emerging from under the shade, presented 
to me sitting there, the illusion of a theatrical 
scene; here the chorus of peasants, there the 
bridge in the back ground, behind which the water 
now poured down in a beautiful cascade, making 
one feel sorry it could not remain free so for 
ever, but it is captured here also, and soon drawn 
off to serve some other purpose; this water is 
supplied from reservoirs high up the hill behind 
the summer palace. A drive through the very 
fine park, filled with grand old trees, was an en- 
joyment more to my taste, but I did not even 
descend to examine the interior of Lowenburg, 
another expensive folly of an old Elector, a toy 
castle built to imitate a strong-hold of the middle 
ages, with turrets, donjon-keep draw-bridge, and 



86 CHAPT. IV. 

all, evincing an absence of the sense of fitness, 
in a country like Germany where the genuine 
article meets the eye at almost every turn, and 
where the stern old ruins can look down with 
contempt upon these, as a giant might upon a 
dwarf; why, the very ivy which gardeners train 
against these modern walls, green glossy, shining 
in the sun, has a pert air of innovation to my 
eye. Those great dark masses thickened through 
centuries, shielding falling portals, or clenching 
the weather-beaten stones, bear a solemn pall- 
like look fitting the desolation it attempts to cover. 
After the fall of Napoleon, the Elector of 
Hesse returned to his dominions from which he 
had been ejected to make room for Jerome, brother 
to the king- maker, Buonaparte. He said he had 
slept seven years, and immediately set to work 
to restore things on the same footing he had left 
them. To quote from Menzel, "he turned the 
hand of time back seven years", degraded the 
counsellors, raised to that dignity by Jerome, to 
their former situations, as clerks; likewise cap- 
tains, lieutenants &c. all in fact to the station 
where he had formerly placed them, and even 
reintroduced into the army the fashion of hair pow- 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 87 

der and queues; prohibited all those bearing an 
official title from being addressed as "Heir", and 
resumed the soccage duties, which had been 
abolished by Jerome. This attachment to old 
usages was accompanied by insatiable avarice. 
He reduced the government bonds to one third, 
retook possession of the lands sold during Je- 
rome's reign ; without granting any compensation 
to the holders; compelled the country to pay his 
son's debts to the amount of two hundred thou- 
sand rix dollars; lowered the amount of pay to 
such a degree that a lieutenant received but five 
rix dollars per mensem, and offered to sell a new 
constitution to the Estates for the price of some 
millions rix dollars, which he afterwards lowered 
to two millions, and a tax for ten years upon 
liquors. This shameless bargain being rejected 
by the Estates, the constitution fell to the ground, 
and the prince Elector practised the most un- 
limited despotism. Discontent was punished by 
imprisonment. The Herr von Goor, who by 
chance gave a fete on a day when the Elector 
was suffering from illness, was among the victims. 
Every petition for a redress of wrongs was either 
rejected, or its originators imprisoned. 



88 CHAPT. IV. 

What a state must Hesse Cassel always have 
been in, when they hailed with joy the hope of 
better things under Jerome Buonaparte that prince 
of libertines , named king of Westphalia. What 
cared he for the people he was called to govern! 
He cast aside the trouble of state affairs upon 
his ministers ; and provided he had money enough 
to furnish his own pleasures ; little cared he how 
the state prospered; Hesse gained small profit 
under the reign of the usurper. The morality of 
the fair sex was on a par with that of the circle 
of ladies of honor who accompanied the Empress 
and the czar Peter the Great , when they paid 
their visit to the court of Berlin in the last cen- 
tury , so humourously described by the princess 
Wilhelmina, sister of Frederick the Great. When 
presented, each lady of honor to the number of 
a hundred or more, had an infant on her arm 
richly dressed, and when complimented upon its 
appearance, curtesied saying, "The czar has done 
me the honor to make me mother of it". Honor! 
a word that goes through strange transmutations. 
Jerome was not a bad man; they nicknamed 
him "King Lustick" (Joyous), the careless enjoy- 
ment of the hour was his prevailing sin; he even 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 89 

quarreled with his brother when the latter in- 
sisted on too strong measures against the people. 
It is said too he had judgment, and did all he 
could to persuade Napoleon against the Kussian 
campaign. It is certain Jerome went with him 
no further than the frontier , and then returned 
to Cassel, where he preferred playing a part on 
his own private theatre, to performing a part on 
the tragic theatre of war, under the deadly in- 
fluences of a Russian winter campaign, 

The restored Elector of Hesse died 1821, 
and was succeeded by his son who abolished 
none of the existing abuses, nor shewed the least 
intention of granting a constitution to his people ; 
the only reform he introduced was the abolish- 
ment of queues and hair powder in the army! 
Those fashions which Napoleon ridiculed so poig- 
nantly, when in his derision of the Prussians, he 
called them, u ces perruques\ The French revo- 
lution swept all the queues and hair powder out 
of France, when in their subsequent aspirations 
after classic models, hair "a la Titus", cropped 
close became the fashion , and was promptly 
adopted by the military, as more cleanly and 
suitable. Not so however, outre Rhin; the mili- 



90 CHAPT. IV. 

tary costume of the reign of Louis XIV. remained 
a stereotyped fact; leather breeches, high topped 
boots , queues and powder, and a heavy chapeau, 
were absolute requirements ; the only infringement 
made was by Frederick the Great who introduced 
the little three cornered hat which characterizes 
him. This digression on military costume sug- 
gested itself while dwelling on the abuses to 
which the miserable Hessians were subjected after 
a short period of liberty and reform. The crush- 
ing influence of the Elector's government im- 
poverished the people, and discouraged all classes 
to such an extent, that nothing was left them 
but to seek protection in foreign lands; fhe tide 
of emigration drained Hesse of its best peasantry ; 
thousands found their way to America; many 
wandered about Europe seeking names and em- 
ployment where they could. In the poorest quar- 
ters of Paris, pursuing the most abject trades, 
numbers of miserable Hessians have been dis- 
covered since the establishment of a German mis- 
sion church in that capital; poor creatures to 
whom the sound of the Gospel in their own ton- 
gue, came like a far off forgotten memory of 
childhood. Many touching scenes were recounted 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 91 

of faith and hope revived, in cellars where knee- 
ling around the dying , a few poor wretches by 
the light of a farthing rush- candle partook the 
Lord's Sacrament. 

Matters finally came to that pass in Hesse 
that travellers avoided it as they would a district 
infested with malaria. "The Elector was governed 
by his mistress the countess von Reichenbach, 
superadded to the other miseries of the state. 
These petticoat counsellors always using their in- 
fluence for their own private ends; flattered by a 
set of greedy retainers , or pressed by needy re- 
latives, like canker-worms they eat into the very 
core of the state, and blight the existence of an 
already oppressed people, by their rapacity, and 
insolent disregard of right. The fashion for such 
acknowledged* court dependencies was going out, 
but this pig-headed Elector re-established the pre- 
cedent of his forefathers. I only wonder among 
the dignitaries of state, Grand Veneur, Grand 
Ecuyer, and the rest of them, that the Grande 
Maitresse du Roi, was not a standing title. At 
length there came a crisis in Hesse, as there did 
in many other parts of Germany; the people de- 
manded their rights, the Elector would concede 



92 CHAPT. IV. 

nothing; they revolted , insulted the Reichenbach 
who was forced out of the country. The mis- 
erable Elector followed her, having yielded up his 
sovereignty to his son William , who was not 
much better than his father. A bit of court scan- 
dal of that day proves to what an abject state a 
man may be reduced under the influence of such 
degradation. 

The Reichenbach was of low extraction, the 
daughter of an obscure jeweller in Berlin, Upon 
one occasion the Elector intruded her upon the 
society of his lawful wife, a Princess of Prussia, 
who indignantly but calmly resisted; whereupon 
her husband hit her a box on the ear at dinner 
before the assembled company. The aide de 
camp en service, Monsieur von Radowitz, rose 
and offered his arm to the princess and led her 
away, forfeiting of course thereby his position 
with the Elector, but protected later by her bro- 
ther, the crown prince. It so happened the day 
after this scandal occurred, a great review took 
place, and the Elector looked on from the bal- 
cony of his palace in the Koenigplatz, with the 
countess of Reichenbach beside him ; he said some- 
thing to displease her, whereupon she hit him a 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 93 

stroke with her parasol, and belabored him there 
before his people till she had shattered her in- 
trument in pieces. 

This achievement following close upon the 
other, proves sufficiently to what point of degra- 
dation the whole had reached. 

It is a sad retrospection to look back upon 
the scenes presented in the last century, the de- 
pravity, oppression, and reckless extravagance of 
Sovereigns; but it also has a satisfactory result 
upon the mind, inasmuch as we feel the pro- 
gress of justice and civilization, as also, what 
was then a barefaced fact, could not now be 
tolerated by public opinion. The grand old Maria 
Theresa was compelled by adverse political events, 
to lower her dignity to the degree of writing to La 
Pompadour, asking her influence with the French 
King, addressing too this Scarlet Lady, as 
"ma cousin e". The object was to form an 
alliance with France, joined by Elizabeth Em- 
press of Russia, against Frederick the Great, who 
jeeringly called it, "The three petticoat treaty". 

At the time of the French invasion, when 
the Elector of Hesse fled, and Jerome Buonaparte 
took possession, the former placed a large portion 



94 CHAPT. IV. 

of his private fortune in the hands of a banker 
at Cassel whose reputation was well established. 
This person used the money with great judgment 
and integrity , and with such successful results, 
that not only was he enabled when the Elector 
returned, to hand him over both principle and 
interest, but also by his operations he had trebled 
his own private means. This man was the father 
of the Rothschilds, he who, calling his five sons 
to his bed-side when dying, enforced union upon 
them as the source of all strength and success. 
The brothers have been wise enough to follow 
their father's counsel, and have made themselves 
a power before which cringing empires have so- 
licited loans, and been refused; what would our 
pig-headed Elector have thought of this! The 
father Rothschild promulgated the grand principle, 
"Union is strength", but the disjointed German 
empire heeded not the fact. Sixteen princes con- 
cluded a treaty in 1806, by which they separated 
themselves from the mother country, and formed 
an alliance with France; every one knows with 
what contempt they were ultimately treated by 
Napoleon. All those princes to whom their own 
petty interests were dearer than the fate of Ger- 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 95 

many, hurried on the fall of an empire which had 
stood a thousand years. 

Union is born of patriotism; patriotism was 
a mere empty sound in Germany; they knew 
little of that impulse which leads an Englishman 
or a Frenchman "to do or die" for their country. 
Theirs, has ever been till now, a divided interest; 
a perpetual friction of individual selfishness to 
which no remedy seemed to apply; let us hope 
that the time is at hand, when broader and higher 
aspirations will develope, under the proud title 
of "United Germany". 

When we look back to the period of 1814 
- 1815 after the final fall of Napole*on, and his 
imprisonment at St. Helena, we find Germany in 
a frightful state of confusion. The old empire in- 
stead of being re-established, was replaced by a 
German confederation consisting of thirty nine 
states : Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, 
Wurtemberg, Baden, Electoral Hesse, Darmstadt, 
Holstein, Luxemburg, Brunswick, and the re- 
mainder, consisting of those petty princedoms 
which had a name to live, and nothing to live 
on; the same, which having verified their own 
impotency, were prostrated in one fell swoop, 



96 CHAPT. IV. 

before the scythed chariot of Prussia, in the re- 
cent war. The supremacy of Prussia had become 
a necessity for a people so subdivided; the idea 
was by no means a new one, the desire for union 
had long agitated the land ; how it was to be 
accomplished remained an unsolved problem. How- 
ever like most great crises it was slowly cul- 
minating towards completion ; it required but one 
Will and character strong enough to strike the 
blow; the great prime minister Bismarck proved 
the man; he believed in no half- measures; tem- 
porizing had kept the country in an eternal state 
of ferment; as he said himself. "A surgeon to 
save life, does not scruple to cut off a gangrened 
limb, no delay, what is to be done, if well done, 
'twere well it were done quickly". Stein the 
great Prussian minister in 1815, in his correspon- 
dence says, „My desire for the aggrandizement of 
Prussia proceeded, not from a blind partiality to 
that state, but from a conviction Germany is 
weakened by a partition, ruinous alike to her 
national learning, and national feeling". At another 
time he writes, "It is not for Prussia, but for 
Germany, I desire a closer, firmer international 
combination, a wish that will follow me to my 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 97 

grave; the division of our natural strength may 
be gratifying to others, it never can be to me." 

On the ruins of the old German empire was 
raised that confederation of thirty nine states, 
represented by the Diet ; permanently established 
at Franckfort, and represented by their respective 
ministers. The eleven principal states had a vote ; 
the inferior princedoms, free cities &c. a half and 
even a quarter vote; such was the constitution 
of the German Diet, none better could be devised 
after the peace of Paris. It was opened by count 
Buol Schauenstein in person , but without en- 
thusiasm. An American orator of that day said, 
"It appears a predetermined policy to stop the 
growth of any good seed that may be germina- 
ting in Germany". But the national sentiment 
which had been aroused by Napoleon, could not 
be extinguished. Metternich endeavoured, but in 
vain to crush it ; on every occasion it burst forth, 
and led to the complications and disturbances of 
these past years. The Union movement has its 
source from traditions of the old Empire, from 
community of language, habits and customs; it 
had been prepared by literature, poetry, and the 
intellectual movement of the Universities; it fer- 

7 



98 CHAPT. IV. 

mented gradually, but finally became a febrile 
excitement for liberty and reform; the feeling 
universally prevailed that in her disjointed state 
Germany, surrounded as she is by powerful neigh- 
bors , could never be true to herself so long as 
dissension and jealousy existed in her interior 
relations; after years of uneasiness and excite- 
ment , she has now found her level beside the 
great powers of Europe, as has been aptly said, 
"At Sadowa, they decapitated the Hydra". 

To cast another glance back at 1815, the 
movement which then took place led to the vo- 
luntary conception of constitutions, on the part of 
the princes, as a concession to their peoples, a 
concession arbitrary it is true, but from which 
the people had a right of appeal; a great step 
gained for them from the abject dependence upon 
the will of their liege lords in the last century. 
The demand for constitutions finally merged into 
absurdities, bringing to light pretensions, like that 
of Lichtenstein for example, whose whole area 
is but two miles square, with a population of 
barely five thousand souls. It became a great 
joke after the late Prussian invasion, and the 
triumph at Koeniggratz, that the men of Lich- 



THE MINOR COURTS OF GERMANY. 99 

tenstein marched valiantly forward to defy the 
conquering Goliath! 

The insurrections of 1830 tore the veil that 
had covered many abuses. The constant dis- 
content ; the constant wavering to and fro, like a 
troubled sea, demanded a remedy; there remained 
but one, the subjugation of territory, and Prussia 
has had the courage to adopt it; every thing was 
carried with a high hand, and now, the paraphar- 
nalia of courts, the chaunt of poets, will resound 
with the watchword "Union"; religious and lit- 
erary education will sound the same note; such is 
the future reliance of Germany; submission is 
ever hard to bear, but if universal good is to 
accrue from it, the reward is close at hand. 



7* 



CHAPTER V. 
COURT CHRONICLES. 

But Man , proud Man, 
Drest in a little brief authority, 
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 
As makes the Angels weep. 

Measure for Measure. 

1 his page of History is not often read, most 
of it belongs to the scandalous records of courts, 
but without wading through that mire, I will here 
transcribe facts gathered from a German historian 
who in short space gives all that is necessary to 
know in order to form an estimate of the period. 
The degraded state of morality, and the licence 
of the French court during the reign of Louis XV. 
had diffused its example more or less, over all 
the courts of Europe; where French manners, 



COURT CHRONICLES. 101 

French scepticism, and French depravity, became 
the mode, and shed a moral leprosy on all those 
chosen sons of earth, whose clay is made of finer 
stuff than the pottery we call "the people", what 
in the days we speak of was known as canaille. 
"The greasy rank scented many". The exqui- 
sitely refined taste and elegance of the French, 
threw a veil of glitter over depravity which dis- 
guised it in part; but not so when engrafted on 
foreign stocks, where it shewed itself barefaced, 
coarse, and vulgar. In Germany French taste 
was everywhere paramount. In Bavaria our histo- 
rian tells us, "The Elector entirely perverted 
by French courtiers, used that language altogether, 
was surrounded by dancing girls, and singers, 
and practised every vice. His consort Theresa 
Cunigunda, daughter of Sobieski the noble king 
of Poland, became so disgusted with the licen- 
ciousness of her husband's court, that she retired 
and became a devotee. In order to escape the 
reproaches of his subjects, the Elector on his 
quality of stadtholder of the Netherlands, resided 
at Brussels, where in one continued maze of 
pleasure he lavished enormous sums wrung by 
tripled taxes from his Bavarian people. He kept 



102 CHAPT. V. 

twelve hundred horses, and mistresses without 
number. In fact "kept every thing but the ten 
commandments", as a witty friend of mine once 
said, speaking of a rake. 

It was entirely owing to his disloyalty, and 
the treacherous diversion induced by him in the 
rear of the Imperial army, that France was not 
completely beaten in the war of the Succession, 
and his close alliance with France gave the lead 
to all the princes of Western Germany. 

He was succeeded by his son Charles Albert 
who was equally a slave to luxury. Besides 
horses and mistresses, he kept immense numbers 
of dogs. Keyssler who visited Bavaria in 1732, 
wrote a very interesting book in which he gives 
the following account, "The Electoress Maria 
Amelia, a little and delicate lady, shoots well at 
a mark, and often wades up to her knees in a 
bog, whilst following the chase. Her dress is 
a green coat and trowsers, and a little white peruke. 
She has a great fondness for dogs, which is plainly 
evident at Nymphenburg by the bad smell of the 
red damask beds, and the carpets. 

The little English greyhounds are most valued, 
and when the Electoress sits at table she has one 



COURT CHRONICLES J 03 

on each side of her, who snap at every morsel 
she eats. Near her hed a dog has a little tent 
with a cushion. There is a couch for a dog close 
by the Elector's bed, and in the cabinet adjoining 
couches for twelve more. The Electoress be- 
coming jealous of her husband's mistresses, there 
ensued a great quarrel, in which he gave her a 
drubbing with his own hand". 

Here closes my informer's account of this 
delectable society. The dog episode was accor- 
ding to the taste of the times. I remember a de- 
scription ot the person of Henry III. of France 
when he appeared all perfumed and rouged, and 
curled, elaborately dressed, with a small basket 
suspended by a ribbon about his neck, filled with 
little dogs, which he was wont to amuse himself 
fondling. The description of his chamber and 
private rooms was pretty much the same as that 
of the Electoress of Bavaria, corresponding also 
with those of Charles I. of England. 

Speaking of this weakness for animals, Lady 
Morgan relates an amusing trait of it in more 
modern days, which makes a pendant to the 
foregoing. "The first time we dined with the 
Archbishop of Taranto at Naples, he said to me, 



104 CHAPT. V. 

you must pardon my passion for cats, but I never 
exclude them from my dining room, and you will 
find they make excellent company. So between 
the first and second courses, several large and 
very beautiful Angora cats were introduced under 
the names of Desdemona, Othello, Pantaleone, &c. 
They took their places on chairs near the table, 
and were as silent and quiet as the strictest 
London bon ton would require. On the Arch- 
bishop's requesting one of his chaplains to help 
the signora Desdemona to something, the butler 
stepped up to his lordship and observed, "The 
Desdemona prefers waiting for the roasts". After 
dinner they were taken out on the terrace to 
amuse themselves, and later all of them slept in 
the bishop's dressing room, on cushions prepared 
for them. The Archbishop of Taranto so well 
known in Italy as the author of many clever 
books, has written one also on Cats, considered 
very ingenious and clever". 

To return to the manners and customs of 
courts during the past century, not an agreeable 
picture surely, but one from which ne must derive 
instruction. Depravity among the great had 
reached its acme; reaction is the law of all things; 



COURT CHRONICLES. 105 

the alarm note was sounded , and through the 
horrors of the French revolution, and the sub- 
sequent remodelling of society , a new order of 
things sprung up. Nations now ; are distinguished 
by their people; monarchs seem to me now 
adays like sign -boards to an Inn, they give their 
name to it ; but it is mine host below , and his 
subalterns who govern and regulate the affairs, of 
"the Emperor of Austria", or "The King of Ba- 
varia", and the rest of them. 

The imperious declaration of Louis XIV. 
"Fetat, c'est moi", has dwindled into an absurdity. 
One smiles now at the pomposity of the u Grand 
Monarque" ', whose personal diminutiveness had to 
be helped out by high -heeled shoes, and alonge 
perruques, where curls on curls heaped high upon 
the brow, were calculated to add dignity of sta- 
ture to the king; and so it came about that both 
short and tall, in all civilized Europe, must needs 
encumber their heads with that monstrosity, and 
become Great! 

In the following reign, the top knots came 
down, and the grandeur too somewhat; the wigs 
now only presented large rolls of hair over the 
ears, known as cannons; the voluminous curls that 



106 



CHAPT. V. 



once fell over the shoulders, were condensed into 
the thing known as a club, and later into the 
little rat -tail queue. 

The successor of Louis le Grand pronoun- 
ced also his famous saying, when warned of the 
dangers of the state, "cela durera autant que 
moi". And so it came to pass, the great collapse 
ensued, shaking kings and thrones to their very 
base, crowned heads now appear au naturel, and 
have learnt they are but men. 



Baden offers some strange historical reminis- 
cences. The city of Carlsruhe a dull sort of a 
place which I visited some years ago, and which 
is now the capital of Baden, owes its origin to 
the caprice of one of its princes about the year 
1715. This Margrave Charles built a hunting seat 
in the forest, called the retreat, "Charles' rest" 
(Karls-Ruhe). In imitation of the celebrated park 
au cerfs of Louis XV. He kept there an hun- 
dred and sixty garden nymphs, who bore him a 
countless number of children. When he travelled 
he was accompanied by girls disguised as Hei- 



COURT CHRONICLES. 107 

ducks. This disreputable hunting lodge became 
in time the nucleus of a new city ; and the streets 
radiate from it in the shape of a fan. The scan- 
dal caused by the Margrave's conduct induced 
him to reduce his establishment, and he confined 
the number of his beauties to sixty , whom he 
shut up in the great leaden tower which forms 
the handle of the fan. It is from the summit of 
this tower, known as the Bleythurm, that you ob- 
tain a view of the singular plan on which Carls- 
ruhe is constructed. The town is nearly sur- 
rounded by forests through which avenues radiate, 
and beyond, are seen the wanderings of the Rhine, 
the distant glimpses of the Voges mountains, and 
the picturesque outline of the Black Forest. Stultz 
the tailor who was monarch of the London world 
of fashion some forty years ago, he who alone 
had the art of confining within elegant dimensions 
the exuberance of the prince Regent's form, he 
who stultified all England, and produced that 
race called "dandies", which has died out; well 
this immortal Stultz, founded here in this his 
native town, a hospital which he endowed with a 
hundred thousand florins, and was in consequence 



108 CHAPT. V. 

honored with the title of Baron. Tell us after that 
if "l'habit ne fait pas Thorn me". 

The last part of the eighteenth century pro- 
duced too a strange growth of women ; with good 
capacities, but finding no proper, or rational vent 
for their minds, they diverged into a thousand 
eccentricities to employ their faculties, the fashion 
of which was adopted by others , and so have 
been left here, in Germany particulary, monu- 
ments of follies and extravagancies among high 
born ladies, which, though more innocent than 
the amusements of their liege lords, certainly helped 
to drain the government exchequer, with very 
little profit accruing. Among such is the country- 
house near Baden, known as the "Favorita", built 
by the Margravine Sibylla. It was furnished in 
a tawdry style according to the taste of the times, 
now dilapidated. She was a great beauty in her 
day, and left here in her boudoir sixty likenesses 
of herself, in every variety of costume. There is 
also a collection of those Delft curiosities then in 
vogue, which were used to ornament dining rooms, 
and kitchens; for fancy kitchens were then in- 
cluded in these frieks of extravagance, with tables 
and dressers, on which were displayed, now a 



COURT CHRONICLES. 109 

platter on which a red lobster sprawled; another 
with a cabbage done to the life*, a fish, a roasted 
chicken, all wrought in Delft ware, exhibited for 
the benefit of visitors; shelves crowded with pots, 
pans, and platters, of the same, not rising to the 
dignity of Old China however, which has its his- 
tory and a name. 

A word more on this Margravine Sibylla; in 
the garden of this her "Favorita", she erected a 
chapel of most extraordinary form, in which she 
did penance for her sins, whatever they might 
have been. In a chamber designedly gloomy she 
passed most of her days and nights in the latter 
part of her life, inflicting upon herself all kinds 
of penalties and mortifications. Here are shewn 
the hair-shirt she wore next her skin, a scourge 
of whip -cord with iron wire points, with which 
she disciplined herself. Her bed was only a rush- 
mat laid on the floor, her only companions two 
wooden figures as large as life, of the Virgin and 
St. John. These were her guests ; with these she 
sat down to table ; the food was divided into three 
portions, and their share ofterwards was given to 
the poor. 



110 CHAPT. V. 

Directly one would set all this down as de- 
rangement had there not survived even, to the 
day I am writing, relicts of those eccentric beings, 
who between ninety and a hundred, have brought 
such singularities even before my eyes, and of 
whom I will speak later. 



Turn we now to Wurtemberg, all modelled 
on the same French pattern, miserable degrada- 
tion all, one wearies of the theme. 

The historian from whom I derive my in- 
formation carries back the history of this court 
to the period of Louis XIV. conquests, and the 
shameful taking of Strassburg. While the Duke 
of Wurtemberg went to Paris to pay his respects 
to the French monarch, the general of the latter, 
plundered his kingdom. Unroused by such un- 
heard of insolence, the princes of Wurtemberg 
continued to patronize every thing French, and 
in the absence of native nobles, who had retired 
in disgust, foreigners were attracted to the court 
to heighten its splendor. It was in this manner 
that Mademoiselle Gravenitz, and her brother 



COUET CHRONICLES. HI 

came from Mecklenburg to Stuttgart, evidently 
for a purpose. Their end was soon gained, and 
the duke scandalised the public by marrying the 
Gravenitz, though he had a wife already. The 
Emperor insisted the woman should be sent off, 
to which the duke consented only upon condition 
that the Provincial Estates gave her a sum of 
two hundred thousand florins by way of compen- 
sation. Hardly did he have the money in hand, 
when the Gravenitz returned under the name of 
Wurben, a count of that name having been in- 
duced to marry her for a consideration, and who, 
after being created Grand provisional governor of 
Wurtemberg, was sent out of the country. His 
wife, the Grand provisional governess remained 
however, and for twenty years governed the 
duke, and the country in his name. Her brother 
figured as prime minister, and as she furnished 
the court of Vienna with money, and Prussia now 
and then with giants for the army, she was in a 
manner protected by foreign powers. 

She was called, and with truth, "the de- 
stroyer of the country", for she sold offices and 
justice, commuted all punishments by fine, ex- 
torted money by threats, bestowed the most im- 



112 CHAPT. V. 

portant commercial monopolies on Jews, mort- 
gaged and sold the crown lands, &c. She ma- 
naged the duke's treasury, and her own. His was 
ever empty, hers was always full; she lent the 
duke money, and he repaid her in lands. By 
means of spies, a strict police, and the violation 
of private correspondence, she managed to sup- 
press the murmurs of the people. Osiander the 
churchman, alone had the courage to reply on 
her demanding to be included in the prayers of 
the church, "Madame, we pray daily: Lord 
preserve us from evil". It was forbidden under 
pain of punishment to speak ill of her. The pro- 
princial Estates wishing to defend themselves 
against the enormous exactions, the duke threa- 
tened the "individuals" in case the Assembly 
any longer opposed his views. 

On the increasing discontent of the people 
and of the Estates, the duke quitted Stuttgart, 
and erected a new residence, Ludwigsburg, at 
an immense expense. On laying the foundation 
stone of this palace, he caused such an enormous 
quantity of bread to be thrown to the assembled 
multitude, that several people came near being 
crushed to death under it. The general want in- 



COURT CHRONICLES. 113 

creased, and in 1717 the first great emigration to 
North America took place. 

The countess at length demanded as her 
right, as possessor of the lordship of Wetzheim, 
a vote, and a seat ; on the Franconian bench of 
counts of the Empire , which being granted to 
her brother in her stead, a great quarrel ensued, 
and he took part with her enemies against her. 
Success too had made her insolent towards the 
Duke ; her youth and beauty had long since passed 
away, and on the presentation of the countess 
Wittgenstein, her influence entirely vanished; she 
was imprisoned and deprived of her immense 
demesnes. On the death of the Duke she lost 
also part of her ill-gotten wealth, and the Jew 
Suss, privately robbed her. 

So fared Wurtemberg at the commencement 
of the last century, and succeeding Grand dukes 
did not do much better for the happiness of their 
people. To the Graevenitz succeeded the Jew 
Suss, to whom was intrusted the helm of state, 
and who shamelessly robbed the country." 

Enough has now been said to shew upon 
what foundation court habits were formed. Better 
times awaited the oppressed people, but it was 



114 CHAPT. V. 

only in 1789, that prince Charles Frederick abo- 
lished villanage, which still existed in certain 
parts of his domains At Eutingen a small pyra- 
mid has been erected by the villagers, to comme- 
morate the fact. Before this date the peasantry 
were serfs, bought and sold with the land, and 
obliged to work a certain number of days for 
their landlords. 

Wurtemberg was made a kingdom by Na- 
poleon. It is the most densely populated state in 
Germany. Agriculture is its chief source of wealth, 
it produces wine to the value of upwards of three 
million of florins annually. The timber of the 
Black forest is sent down the Rhine into Holland 
for ship building purposes ; enormous rafts guided 
by a dozen men or more, are constantly seen 
upon the river at certain seasons. A hut in the 
centre serves for sleeping accomodation, and a 
cooking stove sends up its fumes into the open 
air. How often have I imagined the poetical luxury 
of such a voyage down the Rhine; smile at it 
who may. The freedom from all restraint, the 
clear open view on all sides, and above all the 
silence to enjoy nature and your own impressions. 
The rapidity suffices all moderate desire of speed ; 



COURT CHRONICLES. 115 

the strength of the current carries you onward. 
I wonder no "eccentric" Englishman has ever 
thought of it. To avoid those nasty little stuffy 
steam boats, where the passenger luggage is al- 
ways heaped up in a mass just in the midst, and 
the passengers sit in two lines facing each other 
on deck, with their backs to the shores; a po- 
sitive bodily effort required every time you pass 
some favourite point, and an eternal smell of hot 
grease from the engine ! To rid oneself of all this, 
to be alone with the elements, to see where, 

"The river nobly foams and flows 
The charm of this enchanted ground, 
And all its thousand turns disclose 
Some fresher beauty varying round." 

To be alone upon the Rhine, no pushing, no 
staring, no hot vapor, it would be an enchant- 
ment, this voyage upon a raft. 



The next German court which our historian 
dwells upon, commencing at the same period, is 
Hanover, whose story is quite if not more re- 
plete with specimens of French morality. I will 



116 CHAPT. V. 



4 



transcribe it verbatim. "The first Elector of Han- 
over Ernest Augustus who suddenly restored the 
power of the divided and immoral Guelphic house, 
was not free from the faults of the age. Although 
champion of the honor of Germany, he was the 
slave of French fashions. Unprincipled and licen- 
tious, faithless and ungrateful to his noble con- 
sort Sophia, in whose right his son mounted the 
throne of Great Britain, he built „Montbrillant" 
for his mistress the countess of Killmansegge, 
and "The Fantaisie" for the other, the countess 
Platen. 

His Italian chapel director, Stephani, con- 
trolled the government. His neglected consort 
Sophia, a woman of high intelligence, consoled 
herself by patronizing men of letters, among whom 
conspicuously stood Leibnitz', the greatest genius 
of his day. 

Her son George married a near relative, 
Sophia Dorothea, daughter of the last duke of 
Celle; she became enamoured of a count Koenigs- 
mark, and prepared to fly with him, and turn 
catholic. The plan was discovered; the count was 
beheaded, and she was imprisoned for life. 



COUET CHEONICLES. 117 

The Elector was not so severe in his own 
personal experiences, he kept numerous mistresses, 
particulary Irmengarde Melusina von Schulenburg 
who gained such undisputed sway over him, that 
he took her to England when he ascended that 
throne, created her duchess of Kendal, and in- 
duced the Emperor to bestow upon her the title 
of Eberstein, which made her a princess of the 
Empire. He devoted himself completely to the 
interests of Great Britain; Hanover became only 
a province of the same, but the absence of the 
prince afforded no alleviation to the burthens of 
the people. The Electoral household was kept 
up on its usual footing, for the purpose of im- 
posing upon the multitude, and affording lucra- 
tive offices for the nobility. The palace bore no 
evidence of being deserted, except for the ab- 
sence of the Elector himself, not a courtier, not 
a single gold -laced lackey was wanting to com- 
plete the court. The courtiers assembled every 
Sunday in the Electoral palace. In the hall of 
Assembly stood an arm - chair on which the por- 
trait of the sovereign was placed. Each courtier 
on entering bowed low to this portrait, and for 
about an hour the company remained conversing 



118 CHAPT. V. 

in low tones as if in the presence of royalty; 
then a splendid repast at the Elector's expense 
was announced." 

Meanwhile the Hanoverian diet merely vege- 
tated; arbitrary laws depressed the people, and 
Munchhausen the patriotic govenor, alone shewed 
some interest in the state ; it was he who founded 
the university of Gottingen. 

Brunswick and Mecklenburg also gave them- 
selves up to the scandalous fashions of the day. 

Leopold von Dessau was the only one of 
the fallen princes of the house of Anhalt who 
earned distinction. He reformed the Prussian 
army, introduced the use of metal ramrods, and 
the rapid movement of closed columns, and pre- 
pared Prussia for the great part she was to per- 
form on the theatre of war in Europe. He was 
the darling of the soldiery , and the „ Dessau 
march", long after his time, led the Prussians on 
to Victory. He was extremely rough in his man- 
ners, a drunkard, and tyranized over the people 
of Dessau, but he made an excellent husband to 
a young girl he had married for love, Anna 
Louisa Fohse, an apothecary's daughter who, re- 
cognized by the Emperor, bore him ten children. 



COURT CHRONICLES. 119 

If we turn to the memoirs of Wilhelmina 
Margravine ofBaireuth, which, though written in 
a frivolous style , convey a complete idea of the 
pomp and poverty combined of the smaller courts, 
we find that of her father-in-law for example 
described; there the suits of rooms were thread- 
bare and frouzy, which they appropriated for her 
use, and there at the ceremonious repasts, when 
a royal health was drunk, it was responded to 
by a salvo of cannon without, and a clashing of 
cymbals within. The fashion existed in Baireuth 
as elsewhere , to erect magnificent residences, 
costing enormous sums wrung from the people, 
and which the revenues of the state did not 
warrant. 



A slight glimpse at the courts of the Prince 
Bishops at the period, will terminate the list. 

These Ecclesiastics emulated the temporal 
princes in luxury and licence. 

Clement of Cologne, brother to the Elector 
of Bavaria, had fixed his voluptuous court at 
Bonn. Here French alone was spoken, and luxury 
was carried to such a height, that even during 



120 CHAPT. V. 

Lent there were no fewer than twenty dishes 
upon the Archiepiscopal table. 

He had a hundred and thirty five chamber- 
lains, and passed the greater part of his time at 
Paris, where he associated with the licentious 
courtier s, and conducted himself in such a manner 
as to excite the astonishment even of the French 
themselves. The city of Cologne was completely 
ruined under his administration; the industrious 
manufacturers and traders were driven by reli- 
gious persecution to seek refuge in the neigh- 
boring towns, till at length Cologne was inhabited 
mostly by monks and beggars. 

The bishops to whom the venerable episcopal 
cities and cathedrals offered a silent reproof, with- 
drew into more modern residences, where they 
could revel in luxury and display. Bonn, Bruch- 
sal and Dillingen, severally offered a voluptuous 
retreat to the Archbishops of Cologne, Spires, 
and Augsburg. 

John, bishop of Wurtzburg, held an extremely 
splendid court. His palace and grounds were 
built on the plan of Versailles, and even up to 
the present day, are objects of admiration. He 



COURT CHRONICLES. 121 

was also bishop of Bamberg, where he held a 
separate court and entertained thirty chamberlains. 

Father Horn who ventured to preach against 
ecclesiastical luxury and licence , was imprisoned 
in a dungeon at Wurtzburg, for twenty years, 
until death released him in 1750. 

The Archbishop of Salzburg had twenty three 
chamberlains, and owned the chateaux of Mira- 
bella, Klesheim and Hellbrunn, with gardens, 
temples, fountains, grottoes, statues of naked 
nymphs, menageries, orangeries, and every luxury. 

This example was followed by numerous Ab- 
bots, and prelates of every description. 

They paraded in gilt carriages drawn by six 
horses, Heiducks standing behind, footmen run- 
ning before, followed by a train of gay cavaliers. 
They chased the Boar in their forests, or lounged 
with their mistresses in their luxurious boudoirs. 
The depravity of the women in all the Episcopal 
demesnes, had become proverbial. Facts like 
these, which present the manners and spirit of 
the age, suggest reflections unnecessary for the 
writer to express. That vast question which ab- 
sorbs all minds at the present era, the question 
of power and justice, is near its solution. This 



1 22 CHAPT. V. 

recital of facts however superficial , must lead 
one to the conclusion, that the order of society 
and morality, with the sense of right, have made 
giant strides, and from the vicissitudes and cala- 
mities of the past, civilization has emerged upon 
the present, unshackled by the manifold restric- 
tions of petty power, and narrow views, and with 
still nobler aspirations glowing on its future. 
Taken from a higher point of view, there is al- 
ways a moral sentiment pervading human nature, 
calling for the necessity of amelioration, deeply 
planted in man's heart by the hand of God; it 
fructifies silently but surely, and at particular 
epochs evinces itself; it has germinated even under 
the blight of moral depravity, and under the iron 
tramp of war, crushed but not killed. 

Enough has now been said to shew the state 
of things in Germany during the last century. 

The first glimpse presents inexplicable con- 
fusion. Thirty or more small sovereigns, little and 
big; free cities, prince prelates, absolute monarchs; 
one is at first confounded with the extraordinary 
mixture of names and things, each one only look- 
ing to his own particular interests, an Empire in 
name, but made of disjointed parts agreeing in 



COURT CHRONICLES. 123 

nothing but a servile adulation of France, and 
imitation of its depravity. At length came the 
remedy. Napoleon by his conquest overthrew all 
feudal rights, and antiquated customs. He broke 
down the old wall of habits which the petty so- 
vereigns had erected about them, he trampled 
upon prejudices, he ridiculed ideas already be- 
come obsolete in France, he tyranized, but he 
reformed. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE WASUNGER WAR. 

But truce with Kings and truce with constitutions, 
With bloody armaments and revolutions, 
Let Majesty your first attention summon, 
Ah, ca ira, The Majesty of woman ! 

Burns. 

It has been averred that never was mischief 
brewed, without a woman's being at the bottom 
of it; I cannot vouch for the fact, I know that 
when Eve made all that mischief about the apple, 
the nobler sex, after helping to eat it, cast all the 
blame upon the woman, which though it be a 
trait true to human nature, is a very mean one. 
The Wasunger war had no very terrible conse- 
quences but is amusing as developing the state of 
feeling in the small states during the past century. 



THE WASUNGER WAR. 125 

The Duke of Sax Meiningen had made a mes- 
alliance, and the princes of his house would not 
recognize his children as legitimate heirs; morti- 
fied and chagrined he never would live on his 
estates of Meiningen, but passed his married life 
partly in Amsterdam, and later in Franckfort; 
the duchess was lovely, and worthy in every 
respect, but her father was only a Hessian cap- 
tain; the Duke who was deeply attached to her, 
resented openly the pretensions of the lower no- 
bility, who were more virulent in their demon- 
strations than those of higher rank, and after the 
death of his wife, it was quite in accordance with 
his character, to display his hatred when opportu- 
nity offered. 

In the royal palace at Meiningen, the Frau 
Landj agermeisterin (wife of the Grand Master 
of the chase), Christiane Auguste von Gleichen, 
held the highest rank. Among the other ladies 
who had a right to be there, was a Frau von 
Pfaffenrath, born countess Solrns, but as yet only 
the wife of a counsellor, who had but just been 
ennobled, and to whom she had not been married 
in a very regular way; her husband had been 
tutor in her father's house; she had eloped with 



126 CHAPT. VI. 

him, and after many troubles had become recon- 
ciled with her mother, and obtained a diploma of 
nobility for her husband. Now the Duke residing 
at Franckfort protected her, because as it was 
then whispered, her sister was in his good graces. 
Naturally she ought only to have rank according 
to her husband's patent, but she placed herself 
by right of birth, on a footing with the high 
nobility. Therefore in October 1746, when the 
doors of the dining room were to be opened, and 
the page was standing ready to repeat grace, the 
master of the horse entered, and said to the Frau 
Landjagermeisterin, "His most serene Highness 
has commanded that the Frau von Pfaffenrath 
shall take rank before all other ladies." Frau 
von Gleichen answered she never would consent 
to that, but the Frau von Pfaffenrath had placed 
herself so favourably that she managed to take 
precedence of the Frau Landjagermeisterin 
before she could prevent it. Yet, this determined 
lady was far from submitting tamely. She hast- 
ened round the table to the Duke's cabinet mi- 
nister, and declared to him, as became a woman 
of spirit, after such an insult, "if Frau von Pfaffen- 
rath again goes before me to table, I will pull 



THE WASUNGER WAR. 127 

her back even to the sacrifice of her hooped 
gown, and will say a few words which will be 
very disagreeable for her to hear." The cabinet 
minister was in great embarrassment, for he was 
aware of the violent character of the Frau von 
Gleichen ; at last he advised her to rise from table 
before the grace, then she would at all events go 
out first, and gain the precedence. Thus the 
Landjagermeisterin maintained her place, but she 
was much offended, and the whole court split 
into two parties. This lady's quarrel made a 
commotion in the holy Roman Empire, occasioned 
a campaign between Gotha and Meiningen, and 
was only ended by Frederick the Great in a 
manner which reminds one of the Lion's feast, 
who took the best share for himself. 

Frau von Gleichen appealed to the absent 
Duke, and received an ungracious answer; irri- 
tated, she put in circulation an anonymous letter 
in which she maliciously exposed all the love 
affairs of the countess. The Frau von Pfaffenrath 
entered a complaint against this Lampoon, and 
instituted proceedings against the Gleichen, which 
even in those days were deemed cruel; she was 
called upon to crave pardon on her knees; she 



128 CHAPT. VI. 

answered ; "she would die first"; whereupon she 
was taken in arrest to the council house , and 
there guarded by two Musketeers; her husband 
also was put into prison. She wrote a letter to 
the Duke petitioning for her husband's release, 
and her own dismissal from the court; all this 
was denied her. On the contrary she was con- 
ducted into the chamber of the Pfaffenrath, in 
order to beg pardon, and when she again refused, 
was led to the market place under escort of a 
band of musketeers, and there the sheriff read 
aloud a decree, proclaiming the lampoon should 
be burnt by the hangman before the people, 
under the eyes of the Landjagermeisterin, and 
every one was forbidden on pain of six weeks 
imprisonment, and a fine of one hundred dollars, 
to speak on the subject; then Frau von Gleichen 
was taken back to prison. The Gleichen's appealed 
to the Imperial court, which ordered the Duke of 
Meiningen to set them free. No notice was taken 
of this decree; upon which the Duke of Gotha 
was commissioned by this same tribunal to pro- 
tect Frau von Gleichen and her husband from 
further violence. This created between Meiningen 
and Gotha great bitterness of feeling, and end- 



THE WASUNOER WAR. i29 

less quarrels, and the struggle which took place 
thereupon. 

In the centre of Germany, in the Thuringen 
states, this is known by the name of the Was- 
unger War. In a military point of view, it is 
of no importance, but is characteristic of the 
period. All the misery in the German Empire, 
the decaying state of the Burgher life, the coarse 
immorality of the politics of that time, the mean- 
nesses, pedantry, and helplessness of the Imperial 
army, are shewn to such an extent, they might 
become a source of amusement if they did not 
give rise to a better feeling, Pity. — During the 
period the war lasted, the Duke of Weimar died, 
leaving the guardianship of his son to Gotha. 
This led to new complications, and Gotha being 
pushed to extremities appealed to the king of 
Prussia for help, which was granted on condition 
that two hundred picked men from the Weimar 
guard, should be made over to his army, and so 
the Wasunger strife was settled by men being 
chaffered away like a flock of sheep. 

Such is one of the pictures of German life 
which I have transcribed from Freytag's book, 
treating of such subjects, and which he gathered 

9 



130 OH APT. VI. 

from documents written at the period , in good 
faith, and which at the present day have become 
curious lore, and proof of the weakness and in- 
stability of a house divided against itself, as was 
the much magnified German Empire. 



These chapters being written as supplements 
to the "Impressions of Germany", I am induced 
to repeat here an episode bearing upon the article 
"Vienna", which has lately come under my eye, 
and which has its bearings upon the subject 
just treated , the exposition of the miserable 
state of the European courts during the past 
century. 

The beautiful young Archduchess Josepha> 
daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, was be- 
trothed to Ferdinand IV., King of Naples, a youth 
of seventeen. Her nerv r ous antipathy to the match 
was evident, but the Empress unused to opposi 
tion from her children, enforced obedience. Be- 
fore leaving Vienna the young princess was obli- 
ged by her mother's order to descend into the 



THE WASUNGER WAR. 131 

Imperial vault, and perform her devotions at the 
tomb of her father; there she was seized with a 
fainting fit, carried home, the small pox proclaimed 
itself 7 and she died. 

Sir William Hamilton then resident at the 
court of Naples, gives some graphic pictures of 
things that happened there; he says, "no Euro- 
pean sovereign has been so ill educated as this 
prince; he is master of no language, and the 
Italian which he speaks, is the commonest dialect 
of the people. It is true he understands French, 
and when indispensable can make himself under- 
stood with difficulty. Ferdinand indeed never 
reads, and looks upon a rainy day as the grea- 
test of misfortunes, because it prevents his fol- 
lowing the chase. On such occasions recourse is 
had to every expedient which can be discovered 
to kill time, in order to dissipate his Majesty's 
ennui ; even to the most puerile and childish pas- 
times. Betrothed to the Archduchess Josepha who 
was represented as charming in person, as well 
as in disposition, he awaited her arrival with im- 
patience, and when the fatal news came that she 
was dead, he shewed as much feeling as could 
be looked for from a person of his mean capacity, 



132 OHAPT. VI. 

for a person lie had never seen; but what con- 
siderably augmented his chagrin on the occasion 
was, its being considered indispensable he should 
desist from his usual diversion of hunting or 
fishing, on the day the news reached Naples. 
Ferdinand reluctantly submitted to such an unu- 
sual renunciation of his pleasures, but having 
yielded from a sense of decorum, immediately set 
about endeavouring to amuse himself within doors ; 
in the best manner circumstances would admit; 
an attempt aided by the gentlemen in waiting 
about his person. They began therefore with 
billiards, a game which his Majesty likes, and 
which he plays with skill. When they had con- 
tinued this some time, leap-frog was proposed, 
to which succeeded various feats of agility. At 
length one of the gentlemen, more ingenious than 
the others, proposed they should celebrate the 
funeral of the Archduchess. The proposal far 
from shocking the King, appeared to him, as well 
as to the rest of the campany, most entertaining, 
and no reflections either on the indecorum , or 
want of apparent humanity in the proceeding, 
interposed to prevent its immediate realization. 
Having selected one of the chamberlains remar- 



THE WASUNGER WAR. 133 

kable for his youth and beauty, to represent 
the Princess, they habited him in a manner sui- 
table for the mournful occasion; laid him out on 
an open bier ; according to the fashion of Neapo- 
litan interments, and in order to render the cere- 
mony more appropriate, as well as more accura- 
tely correct, they marked his face and hands with 
drops of chocolate, designed to imitate the pustu- 
les of the small pox. All the apparatus being 
completed, the funeral procession began, and pro- 
ceeded through the different apartments of the 
palace at Portici, Ferdinand officiating as chief 
mourner." Sir Win. Hamilton goes on to say, 
that having heard of the Archduchess' death he 
had proceeded to the palace to offer his condo- 
lence in private to the King, and was witness to 
the above extraordinary spectacle which, he re- 
marks, "in any other Country in Europe would 
be considered impossible, and beyond belief." 
Not so with us at the present day, who can look 
down upon the great Diorama of the last century 
presenting one after the other scenes and achieve- 
ments among the rulers of nations, that we would 
recoil at seeing enacted now in the meanest Bur- 
gher's domicile. The moral pestilence had reached 



134 CHAPT, VI. 

its acme; thrones had become but whitened se- 
pulcres, all rottenness within, the awful revolution 
that shook France to its centre, like a volcano 
sent its shocks over the length and breadth of 
Europe, the revulsion we live to witness. 



CHAPTER VII. 
OLD DRESDEN 



Grim visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front; 
And now-instead of mounting barbed steeds, 
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries — 
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber 
To the lascivious pleasing f a lute. 



Vt hile the lesser sovereigns were thus dis- 
playing their follies and vices, Saxony was not 
behind hand in extravagance and depravity, the 
only difference was, this last did things on a scale 
of magnificence, astounding men's minds, and 
disguising in part, the vice that suggested it. 
The world knew the king of Saxony had the 
Freiberg silver mines to back him, and they were 
believed inexhaustible. I have alluded in rav 



136 CHAPT. VII. 

former volume to these reigns of Augustus the 
Strong ; and his son and successor Augustus the 
III., and of the prince minister Bruhl's rapacity. 
French luxury was so important to the well being 
of these, that even the latter sent to Paris for all 
the pastry and confections served at his table, 
and his wardrobe Was furnished from there with 
every article. The richness of his attire exceeded 
that of the King himself; he had every thing by 
hundreds, such as shoes, &c. and a cabinet tilled 
with peruques. This superfluity of peruques might 
seem too great an absurdity, did not one know 
that besides the fashion of covering the head with 
one, as a daily habit, there were constantly mas- 
querades, fetes, carousals, going on, in which the 
whole court took a part in various costumes, 
making the country to resemble a great theatre. 
In 1728 the King of Prussia, Frederick 
William, came to Dresden on a visit, accompanied 
by his son the crown prince, afterwards Frederick 
the Great. On this occasion the palace was me- 
tamorphosed into an Hotel, (Gasthof) under the 
name of the " White Eagle", and all the court 
appeared in appropriate characters. The King 
himself as host, twenty four of the principal la- 



OLD DRESDEN. 137 

dies and gentlemen of the court dressed as wai- 
ters , and chambermaids , cooks and houseknights. 
Four companies of peasants, each numbering six 
pair, French, Italian, Mountain peasants (the lace 
makers), and Norwegians, were headed by count 
Flemming and his wife ; to these the crown prince 
of Prussia joined himself as first peasant. A 
peasant wedding was celebrated, in which the 
court poet performed the part of bridegroom, and 
amused the company with verses adapted to the 
occasion. The dancing, music, and above all the 
eating, completed the remainder of the entertain- 
ment. The list of food consumed, is so enormous 
that we may well infer that the stewarts of the 
King's household followed the example of his 
minister, and mistresses, who openly robbed the 
country. On this occasion the amount of wine con- 
sumed was, 2266 flasks of Tokay, 800 flasks of 
Burgundy, 250 Champagne, 4000 gallons of Rhine 
wine, not to speak of beer and landwine amoun- 
ting to several thousand gallons. 

Perhaps we might be able to believe the 
truth of this consumption of liquors, since it was 
the fashion of the day to drink deep, but as the 
same enormous provision of eatables is mentioned, 



138 OHAPT. VII. 

we must infer that the Germans possessed as in- 
finite a power of digestion, as they had of suction. 
Think of 15 Deer, 8 wild Boar, 300 pheasants, 
400 partridges, 2 oxen, 50 tongues, 300 capons, 
150 young chickens, 9000 fresh oysters, and a 
wonderful list more, not worth repeating, but all 
in proportion to the above, and you will have 
some idea what a peasants wedding at "The 
White Eagle", cost. 

In reading these old chronicles, and looking 
back to the childish follies of a hundred years 
ago, we cannot but be astounded at the wonder- 
ful change society has undergone. Kings have 
descended to a level with other mortals. No 
longer are their visits hailed with salvos of can- 
non, and a royal guard to accompany them, or 
an excited rabble crowding to see the pageant. 
Many sovereigns have visited Dresden during my 
residence here, and hardly was one aware when 
they came oir went. A private rail -road con- 
veyance brings them, a few royal carriages carry 
the king and princes to welcome them, and ac- 
company them to the palace, where they remain 
one, two or three days enjoying hospitality quietly ; 
perhaps are seen in the royal box at the theatre, 



OLD DRESDEN. 139 

where they come in and out without ceremony, 
Russia, Austria, Prussia, and various minor princes 
have been here and gone again, with no more 
display than a few extra carriages and four. Er- 
mined velvet robes, and gold crowns and scep- 
ters, remain alone for the dignitaries of the stage : 
and the gentlemen in plain uniforms, who sit in 
the royal state box there above them, must be 
pleased to feel themselves rid of those inter- 
minable trappings, the fashion of which was set 
by King David, or Solomon. 

In 1807 a remnant of past grandeur was 
exhibited in Dresden on the occasion of Napo- 
leon's first visit. He came dashing up as far as 
the town walls in a carriage drawn by eight 
horses; all the bells were set ringing, and a sa- 
lute of many cannon tired; a line of life guards- 
men extended from the palace to the Elbe bridge, 
across, and up the avenue of the Neue Stadt, 
where the line Avas extended by the brigades of 
prince Maximilian, as far as the " Black Grate", 
(Schwarzes Thor), where a state carriage and 
eight black Neapolitan horses awaited the Em- 
peror. The hurras and vivats rent the air from 



140 CHAPT. VII. 

an assembled multitude, whose voices drowned 
the military music! 

At the Schloss, Napoleon was received and 
presented to all the royal family, The next day 
he visited the fortifications, and in church a grand 
Te Deum was sung, amidst a salvo of cannon. 
At night a great illumination; triumphal arches 
and obelisks, in honor of "Napoleoni Magno, Vic- 
tori, Pacificatori". 

After two or three days had passed examin- 
ing the museums and collections of Dresden, the 
Emperor departed for Meissen, amidst the clangor 
of bells and cannon again repeated. Such was 
the first transit of this great luminary over the 
disk of poor little Saxony, and well did she even- 
tually pay for her allegiance to France. 

On the Emperor's second visit 1812, he brought 
with him his newly made wife Marie Louise. The 
King and Queen of Saxony went as far as Frei- 
berg to meet them. The Emperor had one hun- 
dred and seventy seven persons in his suite, 
among whom were most of his distinguished ge- 
nerals: Berthier, Murat, Bessieres, Duroc &c. and 
a number of titled dignitaries of state; they all 
entered Dresden in the midst of a clashing of 



OLD DRESDEN. 141 

town bells ; and cannon; and the next day a Te 
Deum, and more cannon; and the day after, the 
Emperor and Empress of Austria arrived as in- 
vited guests ; more cannon ; then the crown prince 
of Prussia; more cannon. Then came a grand 
ceremonial dinner where nobles served, and Em- 
perors eat off gold plate ; and the royal chapel 
musicians performed. Then fanciful illuminations, 
with great obelisks of lights, and the Initials of 
the two Emperors in letters of fire. 

Next evening an entertainment at the theatre, 
called "the temple of the Sun". The scene pre- 
sented a landscape, and the Temple of the Sun 
in full view, upon which was inscribed, "di lui 
men grande e men chiaro il sole". (The sun is 
less great and less brilliant than he.) 

It seems hardly credible that obsequience 
could bow so low before mortal man, in days 
when the spirit of liberty bad been roused, and 
the people had begun to feel they too were men 
in the sight of God; yet it was so. The little 
Corsican was placed upon a pedestal, "and the 
people sat down to eat, and rose up to play", he 
was the idol of the hour. This reminds me of 
an anecdote I read somewhere, of the ambassador 



142 oh apt. vi r. 

of Louis XIV. who gave as a toast at a banquet, 
where were present the representatives of Eng- 
land and Holland, "Le grand monarque, the sun, 
whose brilliancy pervades the whole earth, eclip- 
sing all others". 

The Dutch ambassador gathered up what re- 
mained of the heavenly glories, and toasted, the 
united states of Holland, as, "the moon and six 
planets". The Englishman, not behind them, li- 
kened his sovereign to Joshua the son of Nun, 
who caused the sun and the moon to stand still. 

The day following, the Austrian sovereigns 
took their leave, and the city bells did duty again, 
and again the cannon roared out the old tune of 
''Welcome, the coming, speed the parting guest". 

Another day, and the French party left for 
Paris, as they say, "midst a thunder of artillery 
and the voices of the bells". It was during this 
visit that Napoleon shewed such arrogance and 
contempt for the German princes, as to alienate 
even his most enthusiastic admirers: tears were 
seen to start in ladies eyes, and men bit their 
lips with rage at the humiliations heaped upon 
them. The Empress of Austria, and the King of 
Prussia felt this most bitterly. Napoleon was not 



OLD DRESDEN. 143 

Great, he was not a true gentleman, the highest 
most honorable title this world knows. A man 
of consummate valor, and decision in war, but 
without the social virtues even of a soldier of 
fortune. Of matchless activity and boundless am- 
bition, but entirely selfish, cruel, and overbearing; 
despising those who submitted to his pretensions, 
and pursuing with hatred all who presumed to 
resist him. As a military commander, great, as 
a man, base. On the opening of the Russian 
campaign 1812, all Germany was under his con- 
trol ] he led an army of half a million to the 
frontiers , composed chiefly of Germans under 
French commanders , and so skilfully mixed 
among the French, they were not aware of their 
numerical superiority, there were also Portuguese, 
Spaniards, and Italians, who had been pressed 
into the service. Napoleon said at the time to a 
Russian, "If you lose five Russians, I lose but 
one Frenchman and four pigs" (cochons). 

The third visit of Napoleon to Dresden was 
after the terrible disaster in Russia, when that 
great army was destroyed by famine, the sword, 
and the horrors of the winter climate. Napoleon 
escaped in a sledge; he stopped a few hours in 



144 CHAPT. VII. 

Dresden , had a conference with the King, and 
departed , this time silently and alone 7 reaching 
Paris before the news of his utter defeat. He 
issued a bulletin to the astonished world, telling 
the story of his defeat in his own arrogant man- 
ner, winding up with the assurance, that he never 
was in better health in his life. He took care 
not to add that of the half million of men who 
crossed the Russian frontier, scarce eighty thou- 
sand alone returned alive. "Europe proclaimed 
him as barbarous as Attila himself, or any Cor- 
sican bandit, who prompted the holocaust of half 
a million of men, in the disastrous Russian cam- 
paign; he left them to their fate. France began 
to feel her exhaustion (Napoleon himself said, 
"The revolution destroyed the clergy and the 
nobility, I have destroyed the Revolution"). Should 
he not have said "France"? 

The year 1813 dawned, and we lind Napo 
leon once more in Dresden established in head 
quarters, with an army of two hundred thousand 
men in, and about the town. Germany had been 
roused, the alliance between Russia and Prussia 
had been cemented; the poetry of the people 
now rang upon one theme, "the sword", and free- 



OLD DRESDEN. 145 

dom from the tyrant's yoke. It is singular that 
just about this period, Goethe, Ernst Arndt, and 
Korner met in Dresden. 

Theodor Korner , a volunteer Jager, whose 
songs were universally sung; whose father also 
was a patriot; Goethe said to them pettishly, 
„Well, well, shake your chains, the man Na- 
poleon is too strong for you, you will not break 
them". 

Up to June the results of conflict had been 
about equal. Austria had not declared herself for 
either side; each was anxious to secure her, and 
an armistice was proposed and accepted. Napo- 
leon by recent victories had obliterated the me- 
mory of his Russian defeat; he remained still a 
terrible leader on German soil. The King of 
Saxony who had repaired to Prague, under Aus- 
trian protection, returned to Dresden, and was 
received with great magnificence by Napoleon, 
who did not scruple to call him "une vielle bete", 
behind his back! The declaration of Austria in 
favor of his son-in-law, was almost deemed cer- 
tain. The interests of Austria favored an alliance 
with France, but they mistrusted Napoleon, and 
signed a treaty with Russia and Prussia, to com- 

10 



146 CHAPT. VII. 

bine against him, unless he listened to their pro 
positions of peace. 

Thus things stood. Napoleon occupied in 
Dresden a villa -palace on the banks of the Elbe. 
It has since been changed into the city hospital 
in that district we now know as Friederich Stadt. 
Here he held a sort of court, and hither came 
one day count Metternich. This profound politi- 
cian in his silent watchings, saw the star of Na- 
poleon was waning; he saw the dark and threat- 
ning clouds upon the horizon, and chose rather 
to guide the coming storm, than trust a falling 
star. During the armistice he paid a visit to 
Napoleon, who surmising there was something 
undeveloped, said to him abruptly, "If you have 
come to mediate you are no longer on my side". 
Metternich evaded the subject, but Napoleon re- 
sumed in a tone of insolence, "Well, Metternich 
Iioav much has England given you to play this 
part towards me'?". This taunt towards an anta- 
gonist of whose superiority he was conscious, 
masked a deadly hate. Napoleon let his hat drop 
to see if Metternich would raise it, he did not, 
and war was resolved upon. 



OLD DKESDEN. 147 

All the next chapter of history is well known. 
The Alliance , the Battle of Dresden , Napoleon's 
retreat to Leipzig. That battle of Nations , and 
Napoleon's defeat and flight: Germany was freed 
from foreign influence. 

It is a confirmed axiom that the decay of 
empires follows consequently upon the increase 
of luxury and extravagance of the people , and 
I could not but apply the same remark to con- 
querors. Confident of victory , Napoleon at last 
deviated from the strict military discipline he had 
at first enforced , and of which he had set an 
example in his own person; he allowed later, a 
vast number of attendants for the purpose of pomp 
and ceremony, to follow in his train; permitted 
his marshals the same licence until the private 
carriages, servants, women, &c. amounted to an 
incredible number, consuming provisions intended 
for the campaign. While at Dresden he sent to 
Paris for his company of comedians, among whom 
was the celebrated Talma. 

In these respects he seems with a royal 
crown, to have put on some of the royal follies 
of his predecessors. The armies of Louis XIV. 
and XV. were, if I may use the grandiliquous 

10* 



148 CHAPT. VII. 

language of that day, like comets, whose brilliant 
trails exceeded even the splendor of the planet 
itself. All remember the signal victory of Fre- 
derick the Great at Kossbach, on the fields of 
Leipzig. The enemy with a view of surrounding 
the little army of the Prussians, reduced by re- 
cent combats, formed a half circle; certain of 
victory they had brought the usual resources of 
amusement together, and their camp was a scene 
of confusion and gaiety. Of a sudden Frederick 
ordered his Gen. Seidlitz to dash in among them; 
in an instant dispersion took place, and they went 
flying in every direction. The scene more re- 
sembled a chase than a battle. The booty con- 
sisted chiefly of objects of boudoir luxury; an 
army worthy of having been moulded under the 
auspices of Madame de Pompadour, she who ac- 
companied the troops dressed as a young mus- 
keteer, under the wing of the marechal Richelieu 
who called her his elegant baggage. 

The extraordinary career of Napoleon, the 
rapid transitions that occurred during the whole 
period, dazzled men's minds, it was impossible to be 
just in the estimation of his character. Time now 
has mellowed all, and like Frederick the Great, 



OLD DKESDEN. 149 

his portraiture is a fixed fact, which no one can 
now gainsay. A recent French writer, Mons. de 
Meaux, has given a most impartial sketch of the 
hero unhedged by prejudices, unbiassed by adu- 
lation to the reigning dynasty. "Ignoring alike 
the rights of the Christian faith and the inde- 
pendence of human reason, keeping the Pope in 
prison, and gagging the philosophers; closing 
monasteries in the south, and universities in the 
north; dethroning princes without liberating peo- 
ples; shaking, in order to compress, and overset- 
ting the world in order to enslave it, he dried 
up all the sources of public spirit in France, and 
turned against him all the currents of public feel- 
ing in Europe." 

Twice have the plains of Leipzig been wit- 
ness to the grand defeat of the French, and a 
saying is rife among the Germans that, "three 
times upon the plains of Leipzig will the honor 
of Germany triumph". 

The third still remains in the darkness of 
the future. In these old lands superstitions and 
prophecies yet keep their hold upon the people; 
they are transmitted from generation to genera- 
tion; with enlightenment they become feebler, 



150 CHAPT. VII. 

still they do exist, and are believed in by the 
many. 

When any great misfortune threatens the 
royal Saxon family, strange sounds, neyer accoun- 
ted for, pervade certain parts of the palace. Last 
year these frightened many of the household, so 
said rumor, and there were those who believed 
it. The celebrated "White Lady", who presides 
over the destinies of the house of Prussia, was 
always seen likewise, when danger or misfortune 
threatened the Hohenzollern. 

The tradition received is, she was a countess 
of Orlamunde, a widow, in love with prince Al- 
bert of Brandenburg. She murdered her two chil- 
dren in hopes of removing any impediment in the 
way of securing his affections, but being spurned 
by him, died of grief in the nunnery of Him- 
merskrom near Baireuth. Superstitions and tra- 
ditions are fostered more particulary among the 
country people, and when occasion offers, you 
will be sure to hear of some wonder or prophecy 
transmitted to your household through the milk- 
woman, or the butter -man, fresh down from the 
mountains One night in the autumn preceding 
the recent Prussian invasion, the sword of the 



OLD DRESDEN. 151 

bronze equestrian statue of Augustus the Strong, 
which stands in the Neue Stadt market place, 
fell to the ground. It was not promptly restored 
to his Majesty, it takes longer to do things in 
Saxony than elsewhere, so that little by little the 
common people took hold of the fact, considered 
it an omen, confirmed afterwards by events; and 
so from small beginnings grow important things. 
The presence of the Prussian soldiery garris- 
oned in Dresden, gave rise to various ribald ver- 
ses, sung or said by the rabble as opportunity 
offered. One string on which they all harped was 
"robber", robbery being the people's notion of 
annexation! Just so, when a rich man has the 
constitutional weakness to pocket silver spoons, 
it is called "monomania", and when a poor 
man does the same, "petty larceny". I heard 
peels of laughter issuing from my kitchen one 
morning, and knew the Milchfrau was recoun- 
ting some of her experiences. She is a quaint 
little body, and has a vein of fun in her; I en- 
quired what the joke was about. It seems the 
Prince royal of Saxony, who goes around a good 
deal on foot, was caught in a sudden gust of hail, 
and took refuge under an arched passage where 



152 chapt. vn. 

two or three persons had gone before him; he 
wore his new Prussian uniform. One of those little 
bare -footed street Arabs, those Gamin s, who 
crop up in every civilized city , stood near, and 
examined the Prince attentively from head to foot, 
continuing his survey till the storm held up, then 
stepping out into the street, and finding the coast 
clear, he turned, put his thumb to his nose, sa- 
luted the Prince with " Adieu you old Prussian 
thief", and fled off as swift as the wind. Prince 
Albert was so delighted with the whole thing, 
he wanted to run after the brat, and give him a 
shilling. Straws shew which way the wind blows. 
I find myself diverging from "old Dresden", 
into the modern times, but must turn back again, 
to recount the story of an individual who died 
here some two or three years ago, at nearly 
ninety years of age, and who was the connecting 
link between the days when Napoleon swayed 
public opinion, when the world prostrated itself 
before him, and the present era. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 

There's a dance of leaves in that Aspen bower, 
There's a titter of winds in that Beechen tree, 
There's a smile in the fruit, and a smile on the flower, 
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea. 

Bryant. 

Une of the greatest attractions of Dresden is 
the beauty of its environs , walk or drive which 
way you may, and you find yourself in rural 
scenes. The subburb on the north west, has 
gradually extended itself into what is called the 
Plauensche Grund, where opens the lovely valley 
through which a two hours drive brings you to 
Tharand. Precipitous rocks, and hills covered with 
woodland close in this valley, through which runs 
a rapid stream, known by the name of the Weise- 



154 CHAPT. VIII. 

ritz; shallow and rippling over stones in summer, 
but in the spring-time a rapid torrent pouring 
down from the Erzgebirge mountains, bringing 
along with it winter -fuel from the royal forests; 
this stream skirts the western side of the town, 
sweeps round the Friederich Stadt. and falls into 
the Elbe, just at the foot of the Ostra Allee. 

Every stream has its votaries, every streamlet 
has its own romantic passes, they belong to that 
beautiful grooping of Nature's attributes, which 
are ever charming, ever new, and which the 
master hand of the great poet so exquisitely 
sketches. 

a But when its fair course is not hindered, 

It makes sweet music with the ennamelled stones, 

Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge 

It overtaketh in its pilgrimage 5 

And so by many winding nooks it strays, 

With willing sport to the wild ocean." 

Up to within forty years, Dresden was en- 
circled with walls, and fortified. This little river 
now free, was used then to furnish water for the 
ditches. There were various gates to the town, 
each opening on to some road, and known by 
the name of the city, or village, to which they 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 155 

led: Willsdrufer-, Dippoldiswalder-, Dohna-, Pill- 
nitzer-Thor, all now levelled, only the names re- 
tained in the streets. Just beyond Plauen lies 
the "Grund", as it is called , or meadows where 
the famous cherry orchards grow, and where the 
people walk in spring-time, to feast their eyes 
with the blossoms, and later in summer-time, their 
palates with the finest cherries in the world. 

The valley of the Weiseritz is narrow in 
places, and then expands leaving room for villas, 
and hamlets, and factories, of which last there 
are not a few, and pleasant public gardens where 
the citizens resort. 

At the opening of the cherry-ground, stands 
an old manor-house over which a mystery has 
hung for the last thirty years. It is built upon 
a notch of land round which the stream sweeps 
in a semicircle, forming a natural moat on two 
sides. On the road -side a high massive wooden 
gate closes in a court -yard, the low walls of 
which overlook the stream. A row of ancient 
poplars with trunks bossed and distorted by age, 
stand like grim giant sentinels along this court, 
all else is cold and empty, not a blade of grass, 
not a vine to indicate, that human sympathies 



156 CHAPT. VIII. 

lurk within. The rear of the house overlooks a 
garden overgrown with dank grass , and frouzy 
black looking trees; dark and cheerless it has 
caught the shadow of the house. A wall closes 
in this garden, but of late years all communica- 
tion with it has been shut out, every window on 
that side of the old house being closely boarded 
and nailed up. The mansion is large and mas- 
sive, built a century or more ago, if one may 
judge from the line of its facade which, as it ad- 
vances to the corners rounds off in projections, 
and which, with a very little more, would have 
become "tourelles", as we see them in old French 
villas. In this case they have not so aspired, and 
are content to terminate with the roof, which is 
of coarse red tile, such as covers all the old buil- 
dings in, and about Dresden, and throughout 
Germany. 

The house is of two stories, perforated with 
innumerable windows; those on the basement story 
all barred with iron, those above, all closed up 
with stout outside shutters, weather-beaten and 
grey with age; the four windows facing the moat 
are shut up with Venetian blinds of the same 



PLAUENSCHE GRUNI). 157 

weather-beaten hue, fixtures, that only let in light 
partially. 

Within that chamber, lived for the last thirty 
or forty years, the old countess von Kielmansegge, 
who died two years since, aged eighty six. A 
guard watched her premises by night, and nine 
dogs surrounded her day and night 5 she was not 
deranged, she was only a remnant left, a waif, 
of those "good old times " we have seen des- 
cribed in a preceding chapter. A woman of 
great intellect and capacity. On her table were 
found all the works of clever modern writers, and 
on her desk piles of manuscript; she was busily 
employed inditing a memoir of her own times. 
No one ever entered her doors, nor was she ever 
seen beyond them. What is the meaning of it all? 

Of course rumor had long since told its tale, 
embellished by successive additions; then, time 
had dulled the public interest, when a hearse 
drew up before the gate of the mysterious man- 
sion, and its proprietor was carried to her last 
home. Now again public curiosity was awakened, 
a new generation had grown up to whom the 
story was unknown; things were printed which 
hitherto had been only whispered. Such publi- 



158 CHAPT. VIII. 

cations were suppressed by family interest , she 
belonging to the high aristocracy of the land, but 
not before a few plebeians like myself ; had ap- 
propriated the strange story which I take the 
liberty to repeat, as living evidence of the extra- 
ordinary sort of individuals which the influences 
of the eighteenth century produced. 

Charlotte Augusta von Schomberg was born 
in 1777, of a noble Saxon family. She married 
at the age of nineteen the count Lynar, a young 
man, and in every way a suitable match for her. 
By him she had one son, but their married life 
proved very unhappy. 

We hear of her next on an estate in Hun- 
gary. Whether taken thither by this modern 
Petruchio, to tame the shrew, is uncertain, be 
that as it may, it is proved she remained unsub- 
dued. One day on the count's return from the 
chase, some refreshments were served up to him, 
among other things a cherry-pie, said to have 
been too highly flavored with Prussic acid; im- 
mediately after eating it he was seized with cramps 
and died. The family pronounced it cholera mor- 
bus, the public, — poisoning. The lady wife must 
have had a pretty bad reputation, that people 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 159 

dared say such things of her. There was a move 
to bring her before the public tribunal, but that 
also was quashed by family influence; the stigma 
however remained fixed upon her. 

I may be permitted here to remark that the 
same case occurred at the death of Francis, dau- 
phin of France, who returned from the chase 
heated , eat something which made him ill , and 
he died in two days, suspected of being poisoned. 
Those were the days when his mother Catherine 
de Medicis had established the precedent, and the 
art of poisoning had reached its height, but in 
the case of the dauphin Francis II. there was no 
ostensible motive; heir to the throne, and son of 
Catherine, feeble enough for her to govern at her 
will, his was evidently no death by poison, and 
probably that of count Lynar was produced by 
the same causes. 

We find the countess two years afterwards, 
married to the count von Kielmansegge, minister 
of war at Hanover , and later appointed minister 
to the court of Dresden. The countess still young, 
beautiful, and brilliant, engaged in all the cabals 
and political intrigues of the day, making her 
husband very unhappy, and later, she is said to 



160 . CHAPT. VIII. 

have betrayed Lira to Napoleon. She had been 
presented at the court of St. Cloud where she 
first saw the Emperor. She was then beaming 
with beauty and splendid in talent. The luxury 
of her toilet was so excessive, that she alienated 
all the fortune she had received from her father 
to carry out her extravagance. She attracted the 
attention of Napoleon, and later , when he made 
Dresden his head quarters , he renewed his ac- 
quaintance with the fascinating countess. 

Napoleon then at the culminating point of 
his power, was worshipped as a hero. Intoxi- 
cated with success, he had already proclaimed 
himself sovereign of all Europe. It was at this 
period the countess renewed her acquaintance with 
him, and the mighty conqueror became the slave 
it is said, "de ses beaux yeux"; no slight triumph 
for an ambitious intriguing spirit like hers. About 
this period she was divorced from her husband. 
After the fall of Napoleon, and all the subsequent 
changes, she went to Rome, where she abjured 
the Lutheran faith, and obtained absolution for 
all her sins, on condition of her paying a large 
sum to the church, and incurring the penance of 
wearing for ever after, a halter about her neck. 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 161 

Whether this latter clause has any truth in it ; 
or whether it was only one of those whispers the 
public so delight to listen to, I have not been 
able to discover; it was embellished too with the 
report that the city hangman appeared once in 
the week in her presence ; to examine whether the 
rope held its own; this had been so managed 
to disguise its hideousness, as to form a "torque", 
or twist, covered with silk and silver, undetected 
by casual observers. There is a dash of romance 
in all this, which would not have so developed 
itself in our day, but which corresponds exactly 
with what we have been reviewing in the habits 
of the noble classes in the last century. The 
better part of her life she passed mixed up in 
political intrigues. She was prominent among 
the Liberals and all the revolutionary parties of 
1830, and it is said she conspired with others to 
carry off the young Duke of Reichstadt, and pro- 
claim him Emperor of France. The plot was dis- 
covered, and she was sent out of Vienna to Dres- 
den, under military escort. 

The year after the Duke of Reichstadt's 

death, she retired from the world, which now 

seemed to have lost all interest for her. From 

11 



162 CHAPT. VIII. 

this dates the life she led in the old house at 
Plauen. She rarely shewed herself, and few were 
admitted to her presence. 

On one occasion a Mr. H. who was collec- 
ting documents in order to compile a life of Na- 
poleon; called and begged an interview, the coun- 
tess being the probable person who could enligh- 
ten him on the subject. 

After some demur he obtained an audience, 
and it was from himself I heard the following 
particulars: "Seated in the upper chamber in a 
dim light, I found the old countess, who received 
me with courtesy. She was wrapped in common 
ill fitting clothes, and a cap that was pulled low 
about her face ; her features were rigid, and mar- 
ked by her indomitable will, no sign of come- 
liness about her but the eye, which retained its 
intelligence and fire. About her were heaped 
books and papers upon a table, with two minia- 
ture cases, one containing the likeness of Napo- 
leon, the other of his son when infant King of 
Rome, painted by Isabey, and set in diamonds. 
Several hounds were playing and bounding up 
and down the room, the only furniture of which 
consisted of a few chairs, tables, and a camp bed- 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 165 

stead covered with leather, probably once the 
property of her hero. The conversation naturally 
turned upon Napoleon, and she exclaimed, "moi, 
je l'adore! il est Tetoile de ma vie", and with 
such paltry French sentiment she consoled her 
old age, and obliterated the memory of two hus- 
bands made miserable by her. 

It is said no female servant would remain 
long under her roof. The dark dismal mansion, 
and the perversity of its mistress, were enough 
to prevent them. They said she wandered at 
midnight like an evil spirit, wringing her hands, 
it may be like the Thane's wife, striving in vain 
to rub off the fatal stain. Be that as it may, she 
lived on for years, a miserable old woman. She 
employed herself compiling a memoir which, to- 
gether with her correspondence with Napoleon, 
is not to see the light until fifty years after her 
death; such being the injunction to her heir in 
her will. She left her property to her grandson, 
child of the son by her first husband. 

The year she died, the whim took her to 
have her photograph taken; she sallied out one 
day, and accomplished it. "There, said she to 
the artist, when I am dead you will make your 

11* 



164 CHAPT. VIII. 

fortune upon it." Whether he did or not I never 
learnt, I only know as soon as I heard it was for 
sale, I immediately secured one. She appears 
precisely as Mr. H. described her. Wrapped in 
a great grey woollen shawl, and identical cap with 
a broad frill pulled down to her eyes, a large 
oval face, prominent features, not a wrinkled bad 
face as one might be led to suppose, but an old 
face lighted up by a pair of remarkable eyes, 
full of fire and intelligence, perhaps of temper 
too; there must have been an immense fund of 
constitutional strength and energy to have sus- 
tained in such good keeping, a woman approach- 
ing her ninetieth year. 

It is said that original characters are dying 
out, that with the enlightenment of the present 
day ; and general diffusion of knowledge, no one 
has a chance of becoming morbid and leading 
strange lives. Some say that in the moral pro- 
gress of society the change is only in the new 
forms which originality assumes. Similar idio- 
syncrasies exist, but they shoot into new growths. 
We certainly hear no longer of " queer old wo- 
men". Dowagers of eccentric habits, as they 
existed a hundred years ago. It would seem old 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 165 

women have their phases as well as other things, 
from Witchdom, down to placid inanity. Cer- 
tainly more of these fossilated individuals exist 
in the old towns of Germany, than any where 
else that I know of. New ideas have worked 
their way slowly, and only within the present 
generation; the old German grossmutter is the 
same old grossmutter she was a hundred years 
ago. I do not seem to remember any such old 
people in America; numerically old, yes, but active, 
alive, bright and intelligent they never seem to 
collapse into nonentities. The whiz and whirl of 
our New world leaves no time to petrify, I sup- 
pose; but the numbers of stupid, vapid uninteres- 
ting old bodies I have stumbled over in my wan- 
derings, surpasses belief; knitting is their chief 
resource, and I believe that concentrating the 
mind to the mechanism, hour after hour, day 
after day, year after year, must gradually con- 
tract the intellect down to the narrow focus of 
toeing, and heeling. 



A road winds beside the stream through the 
valley of the Weisseritz and brings you by car- 



166 chapt. vra. 

riage in two hours to Tharand, which can also 
be attained by rail- road , but the latter convey- 
ance gives you no time to enjoy the sudden turns, 
and various developements of the scenery, which 
is charming. 

Tharand is a resort in summer for afternoon 
excursionists. There are beautiful rural walks in 
the contiguous valleys, and a lovely view obtained 
by climbing to the ruin, a remain of an old hun- 
ting seat belonging to the early Kings of Saxony. 
At Tharand there is a school for foresters, a 
craft that at first an American can hardly under- 
stand, we, to whom forests are rather an "em- 
barras de richesses"; we, who in our western 
march of civilization, "lay low the forest fathers 
as they stand", demolish in one fell swoop, the 
innocent sapling- growths; exterminate root and 
branch, those "lords of the soil whose genealogy 
extends back to the deluge". So likewise has 
been done in generations past, in these old lands; 
denuded hill -sides now warmed by genial suns, 
run down with new vines; plains then o'ershad- 
owed by black forests, now glitter with golden 
grain ; towns and thriving villages now stand where 
Druids worshipped beneath their sacred oaks; 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 167 

and so forests are hewn down and disappear, till 
at length civilization begins to learn the use of 
wood, and they must coax and cherish, what once 
they demolished unsparingly. So grew up schools 
for foresters, and gentlemen's sons now study the 
craft. That of Tharand, known as the "Forst 
Academie", has attached to it a Forst garden, or 
nursery of trees and shrubs amounting to about 
a thousand specimens. Here young men are 
taught the forester's art, every thing relating to 
the planting and tending of trees. When they 
have finished their course, theiy find employment 
either in superintending the large estates of others, 
or as gentlemen farmers themselves. 

It is considered in Germany a profession, 
and only includes supervision over the workmen, 
and judgment in the work; frequently in travel- 
ling, I wondered at the plantations of infant ever- 
greens along roads leading through what my Ame- 
rican perceptions considered wild lands, I learnt 
later that those . wild lands are all under super- 
vision, belonging to government, or some pro- 
prietor, and that those little bits of sandy soil, 
where at home we should find mullens and poke- 
berry bushes, are not left to choose their own 



168 CHAPT. VIII. 

vegetation, but are all brought under control, and 
made to do their duty with the rest of the world, 
and it is incalculable how many Christmas trees 
a strip of road -side land, can be made to pro- 
duce. After having learnt all this, no one knows 
*with what tenderness I regarded those little ever- 
greens growing in phalanxes, a real little "tree 
school", as the Germans call them, and I used to 
tell them softly, try hard, grow fast, Christmas 
is coming, and a beautiful destiny awaits you. 
Poor little things, it will be short lived it is true ; 
the "Lichter Baum", plays out its brilliant part, 
but ask not what becomes of it when a week has 
passed away, and it begins to dribble its little 
crisped leaves on parlor floors. 

These Lichter baums, or lighted trees, 
are the remnant of an old heathen custom. The 
gods of the ancient Germans were worshipped 
under trees, on heaths, or in sacred groves. The 
English derives its term "Heathen" from the 
first. Public worship was solemnized under a 
gigantic tree, upon whose branches the heads of 
the sacrificed animals were suspended. 

They killed the beast and sprinkled the sa- 
cred tree, the place of sacrifice, and all the by- 



PLAUENSCHE GRUND. 169 

standers with blood; the flesh was then cooked 
and served as a banquet, the head of the animal 
being hung on the tree. As they generally kil- 
led and ate horses, the eating of horse flesh became 
a mark of distinction between the heathen and 
the christian. On one occasion a christian king 
was forced to eat horseflesh in sign of apostacy, 
and at a later period every one who ate it was 
regarded as a heathen, and put to death. 

There was the great oak at Geismar in Hesse 
which St. Bonafacio cut down, and the pear tree 
on the Malserheath, also sacred. The names of 
"Alteich-old oak", "Eichstadt oak town", and 
"Dreieich three oaks", have all a similar origin. 
We know that in the attempts to christianize the 
German tribes, in most cases the missionaries were 
wise enough to overlook minor customs which 
were harmless, and only abolished the more sinful. 
It was at the great Yule feast which corresponds 
with our Christinas, the winter solstice, the twelve 
darkest nights in the year, that fires were built 
in the woods, perhaps to scare off those evil spirits 
which were supposed to wander abroad at that 
period. These wood illuminations are said to have 
suggested the lighted tree, which Christianity later 



170 CHAPT. VIII. 

endorsed by the name of the Christ tree, till 
time and association have made the little heathen 
iir tree, the joy of our households, the cynosure 
of all eyes, the beau ideal of infant minds, exem- 
plified by a little child's remark who, from a crib 
in his mother's room, saw her dressed for a ball ; 
his little wondering eyes opened upon her with 
unfeigned admiration, he exclaimed "Mama you 
are beautiful as a christmas tree". 



CHAPTEE IX. 
FREIBERG. 

No fairies dance in the Miner's land, 

Gaily tripping there hand in hand, 

No flower blows, and the stern cold sod 

Lies grim and grey where the Miners plod; 

There while the pale faced Miner sleeps, 

The Kobold alone his vigil keeps, 

Plying the tiny hammer and pick, 

Or roaming abroad on some elfish trick : 

Sterile and bleak is the country round, 

All nature's treasures lie under ground. 

lhe rail -road which passes through Tharancl 
brings you to Freiberg, in all , about two hours 
distant from Dresden, exemplifying the triumph 
of engineering in making its way along rocky 
passes, and abrupt turns. 

Freiberg, an old Imperial city, owes its origin 
to a stronghold erected there by the Margrave 



172 CHAPT. IX. 

Otto of Saxony, between the years 1160 — 70, to 
protect the then newly discovered silver mines. 
It gradually extended itself into a city, and coun- 
ted at one time a population of forty thousand, 
now reduced to twelve. It is the capital of the 
mining district of Saxony, and this constitutes 
its prosperity; the silver mines in its vicinity 
having at one period, been the most productive 
in Germany. The early Electors of Saxony made 
it their residence for a period, but later when 
Dresden assumed the importance of capital city 
of their dominions, the sovereigns established their 
court permanently there, instead of moving bet- 
ween Meissen, Wittenberg and Freiberg. The 
result was, Dresden gained the advantage, and 
the others relapsed into mere provincial towns. 
A certain importance, however, always remains 
attached to Freiberg derived from its vicinity to 
the mines, and the establishment of its celebrated 
Academie, or school for miners, founded in 1766, 
where young men congregate from every part of 
the world, and where the professors are among 
the most able in Germany: Breithaupt, Naumann, 
Weisbach, and Theodor Richter now fill the pro- 
fessors chairs. Among the past are Werner, the 



FEEIBERG. 173 

Geologist, Lampadiere , Mohs, and Pladtner who 
reduced blow piping to science; Alexander von 
Humboldt received here his scientific education. 

Freiberg has of late become the favourite 
resort of young Americans who number from forty 
to fifty generally resident; if I may be allowed 
to introduce the opinion of one of them, a real 
hard working student, it may perhaps, like seed 
cast upon the Nile waters, vegetate somewhere. 
Our youths, without any knowledge of the Ger- 
man language, arrive in Freiberg unprepared to 
join any class. Strangers and lonely, they naturally 
fraternize with their own countrymen, and ge- 
nerally the first six months are spent to very 
little profit; the gentleman, my informer, advises 
first, a knowledge of German, and attendance on 
a preparatory coarse of chemistry in some in- 
stitution, which enables a young man to enter 
on the autumn course at Freiberg with ad- 
vantage. 

Freiberg retains in part its antique stamp; 
it is enclosed by a wall and ditch, the wall sur- 
mounted, as at Nuremberg, with little towers at 
equal distances, about fifty feet apart. These in 
case of siege, sufficed to shield the arquebusiers 



174 CHAPT. IX. 

who discharged their arms through the slits, but 
later, when heavy artillery was invented, they be- 
came mere ornamental appendages. 

As men's minds and wants expanded, these 
walls and towers about old towns seemed to bind 
them in too tightly, just as the girdle of our 
youth can seldom clasp the dimensions of our 
middle age, so most old towns have burst their 
bands asunder, and actually trampled upon their 
shackles, for in most cases the levelled walls and 
filled moats become public walks. As yet at 
Freiberg this has only been partially executed, 
and in a town too, where a promenade is so de- 
sirable; the country beyond is arid and denuded 
of trees, as is generally the case in mining dis- 
tricts, where nature seemingly exhausts her efforts 
below the surface. The reason is, that water is 
attracted toward the various veins of ore, draining 
the surface of the earth, thinning vegetation above, 
while its intrusion into the mines is a source of 
great annoyance, and in time has filled impor- 
tant sections, rendering them entirely impracti- 
cable for working; a great work is slowly ad- 
vancing in the construction of a tunnel to with- 
draw the water from the old mines, conveying it 



FREIBERG. 175 

into the Elbe; the expense is enormous, and the 
annual sum provided by government very inade- 
quate to make much progress. The vapors from 
the smelting furnaces are very deliterious to vege- 
tation. Germans are slow, Saxons are slower, 
and Freibergers slower than all. The public pro- 
menade is to be completed, when the moat is fil- 
led up. The moat is to be filled up, when ashes 
and rubbish enough are collected from the towns 
people, who are permitted to throw the same into 
the ditch; a few wagons full daily may be seen 
dragging their slow lengths along; Rome was not 
built in a day, nor will the public walks for the 
Freibergers likely be finished in this generation. 

Several of the early Electors of Saxony were 
interred in the Domkirche of Freiberg, where their 
monuments remain. This cathedral has been a 
good deal injured by fire, and repairs; it was 
founded 1484. The golden gate, a richly orna- 
mented round portal in the Romanesque style, 
saved from the Frauenkirche which was burnt 
down, alone makes the cathedral interesting. It 
is in a very good style. It was going rapidly to 
decay, when a distinguished professor of design, 



176 CHAPT. IX. 

Heuchler, from the mere love of art, restored it 
on his own responsibility. 

In the choir behind the altar, stands the tomb 
of Maurice of Saxony ; a great sarcophagus richly 
adorned, with his effigee kneeling; in a nich 
above is placed his armor, worn at the battle of 
Sievershausen, where he was killed, after gaining 
the victory. This was not the renowned Maurice, 
son of the beautiful countess Aurora von Koenigs- 
mark, and Augustus the Strong, as one might at 
first mistake; this latter, abandoned his country, 
sided with France, and became that celebrated 
Marechal de Saxe, of whom the annals of the 
reign of Louis XV. speak so proudly, and of 
whom a Frenchman said, "ce brave marechal de 
Saxe, qui lave si bien par sa valeur la honte 
d'etre ne AllemancT; truly a bastard son of Ger- 
many! what an epitaph! That he was a hero in 
arms, and a great commander is not to be dis- 
puted, but that he was a court intriguer, is as cer- 
tain. I saw his celebrated monument at Strass- 
bourg in the church of St. Thomas, erected to 
his memory by Louis XV. executed by the French 
artist Pigald, who spent twenty five years in the 
work. 



FREIBERG. 177 

The marechal de Saxe being a Lutheran, 
was interred in this church; his body was trans- 
ported hither from France in 1777, and an elo- 
quent discourse, was pronounced by Bessig on 
the occasion. There are parts of it so beautiful, 
I am tempted to translate a few passages, but 
cannot give the full force of the original: "In 
almost all ages, eulogiums on the dead, have 
been profaned ; we have heard vile adulation and 
mercenary sophistry prostituting themselves before 
vice in power; and the holy temple of God him- 
self, that citadel of truth, has been profaned by 
praise of shameless individuals. Speak! ye who 
listen to me now; dare I here pronounce the 
name of the Marechal de Saxe? They whom he 
has conquered, they whom he has saved, France 
who adopted him, warriors whom he has trained 
to victory, answer all of ye! is Maurice a great 
man? and I hear the response from both banks 
of the Ehine, "yes". 

„The Danube, the Meuse, the Sambre, and 
the Escaut, all raise their voices to respond in 
one simultaneous acclamation ! Such is the funeral 
Eulogium to which cities and nations respond; 
all Europe echos back his praise. He secured 

12 



178 CHAPT. IX. 

our possessions, the heritage of our forefathers, 
and respected meanwhile the rights of humanity, 
and softened, as far as lay in his power, the 
miseries of War." 

The elder Maurice lying in the cathedral of 
Freiberg, with the tattered remnants of many 
battle trophies, still hanging above his tomb, where 
they have hung these three hundred years, was 
another sort of hero ; one of the old German type, 
clad in corselet and mail, a strong rugged warrior, 
impelled by higher, more powerful motives, than 
those which actuated a Frenchified petit maitre, 
who bold and talented as he was, answered that 
description of the nobility of France in the last 
century, who as Dumas describes them, were 
ready with their chapeaux bras, their lace sleeve- 
rufnes, and their ribbon shoulder -knots, to fight 
the battle of Fontenoy." It was indeed a strange 
anomaly that chivalry of France, boldest in war, 
and vilest in court debauchery; among whom 
stood foremost Maurice, Marechal de Saxe. 

Turn we now to that other Maurice de Saxe 
Thuringia. During the stormy period of 1540, 
when the question of religion ran high, when 
Charles V. unwilling to have recourse to violent 



FREIBERG. 179 

measures , tried every method of subterfuge and 
hypocrisy to induce the protestants at the Diet 
of Ratisbon to recognize the council; while he 
secretly informed the Pope he intended to extir- 
pate the Lutheran heresy. Then the pope, fully 
aware of the duplicity of the Emperor, and op- 
posed to him politically, published the fact to all 
Germany. The anger of the protestants was 
justly roused. In August 1546, the princes of 
Saxony and Hesse mustered an army of 40,000 
men, and might easily have surprised the Em- 
peror at Ratisbon, had they listened to the advice 
of Schertlin, who had invaded the Tyrol, and 
who pressed them to march forward. Their re- 
gard for Bavaria, which had declared itself neu- 
tral, prevented the advance over her territory; 
the Emperor escaped, placed himself at the head 
of a force of twenty thousand men, which had 
been sent for his use from Italy, and threw him- 
self into Ingolstadt; he was there besieged, but 
disunion among the German princes caused them 
to withdraw, and give up the siege. One might 
quote many long pages of history that tell of the 
disorders and dismay of that unhappy period: 
The revolt in upper Germany ; the bloody tribunal 

12* 



180 CHAPT. IX. 

at Prague, where the heads of a confederacy for 
constitutional and religious liberty fell under the 
hands of the executioner; numbers of the nobility 
compelled to emigrate, or to purchase their lives 
with the loss of their property; the pope opposed 
to the Emperor; the accession of Henry II. to 
the French throne, his alliance with the pope 
against Charles V. the proposal of the Interim in- 
dignantly refused by the North Germans ; — in fact 
just that want of union in a common cause which 
has ever been the bane of the land, of which it 
has been forcibly said, "like the dogs of Scylla 
the princes of Germany spent their rage in tear- 
ing the bowels of their mother". Here a weak 
prince, half willing to conciliate; there another, 
canvassing for his own interests; again another, 
fitted for the right, but with no one to support 
him. The whole tissue of fraud and impotence 
was suddenly rent asunder by Maurice of Saxony, 
who secretly assembled a great force, entered into 
alliance with Henry II. of France, and raised the 
standard of revolt. He marched upon Insbruck 
where the Emperor lay ill; but a mutiny broke 
out in the Electoral army, which gave the Em- 
peror time to escape; he was carried in a litter 



FREIBERG. 181 

to Villach, among the mountains of Carinthia. He 
was at this time without troops, the enemy in 
full pursuit, the whole of Germany in confusion 
at this unexpected stroke. The Catholics panic 
struck, the protestants full of hope. Every town 
through which Maurice passed expelled the priests, 
and the ancient burgher families rejected the In- 
terim, re-established the pure tenets of the Gos- 
pel, and restored corporative government. Had 
the reaction spread, the Emperor would have been 
obliged to sue for peace. Maurice finally made 
terms. Albert the Wild was the only one among 
the princes still desirous for war, he marched 
directly through central Germany, murdering and 
plundering as he went along, intent upon once 
more laying waste the Bishoprics of Franconia 
and Strassburg, in the name of the Gospel. The 
princes at length formed the Heidelberg confe- 
deracy against this brigand, and the Emperor put 
him under the bann of the Empire, which Mau- 
rice undertook to execute, though they had been 
formerly brothers at arms. Albert was occupied 
plundering the Archbishopric of Magdeburg, when 
Maurice came up to him at Sievershausen (1553). 
A murderous engagement took place, three of the 



182 CHAPT. IX. 

princes of Brunswick were slain , Albert was se- 
verely wounded, and Maurice fell at the moment* 
of victory, in the thirty third year of his age, in 
the midst of his promising career. The trophies 
of that battle hang over his tomb in the cathe- 
dral at Freiberg. 

At the present day the school of mines 
gives the prominent character to Freiberg; the 
mines themselves have so diminished in value 
that the work is carried on with very little spirit. 
The workmen enjoy no immunities at present; 
formerly they were exempted from military duty, 
but since 1830, that privilege has been withdrawn. 
There are said to be 130 mines of silver, copper, 
lead and cobalt, around Freiberg, the prevailing 
rock in which they are situated, is a primary 
gneiss; most of them are one or two miles from 
the town. The principal mines have particular 
names attached to them, some designedly so cal- 
led, others from accidental circumstances. For 
instance there is the "Kurfurst" (Elector), because 
it is spacious and high; the "Alte Mordgrube" 
(old murder mine), from a tradition, or legend. 
Many are consecrated by holy names, instance 
the "Himmelfahrt ", "The Ascension", probably 



FHEIBERG. 183 

discovered on that day. "Neue Hoffnung", "New 
Hope", "Gott wird helfen", "Help in God". Others 
named after prince Electors, probably discovered 
during their respective reigns. The traditions of 
the "Old murder mine" vary. Some tell of an 
overseer so tyranical towards the workmen, he 
was seized and walled up alive within it, by the 
exaspirated miners. Another legend in verse, 
tells of a dying sinner shrived by a monk, while 
the miners and their sweethearts were dancing 
and carousing under the same roof; that when 
the priest had left, and the man died, the foul 
fiend was seen to hover over the building, that 
the earth opened, and all were swallowed up; for 
a hundred years thereafter, not a blade of grass 
was known to grow upon the desolate spot. The 
German love of the marvellous is nowhere more 
developed than in the mining districts. According 
to the heathen belief the different partitions of 
the universe were inhabited by spirits of good 
or evil; that called the Schwartalfaheim, belonged 
to the black Elves, or Kobolds, who watch over 
subterranean treasures and metals, these generally 
hurt and corrupt men. It is said that even Mar- 
tin Luther himself remained tainted with the 



184 CHAPT. IX. 

early superstitions imbibed in infancy, he having 
been reared among the mines of Mansfeldt, where 
his father was a workman; these superstitions, 
hallowed later by religious belief, were trans- 
ferred by him to the devil and his machinations, 
by which he tormented the Reformer during his 
retreats from public life, under the meanest dis- 
guises. Such are the traditions you meet with in 
every corner of Germany, where progress has 
not yet diffused its light. 

At the present period, 1867, the produce of 
the Freiberg mines is very small; but it varies 
essentially in different years. For instance forty 
years ago, shares in the "Himmelfahrt" were sold 
for ten groschen (twenty five cents), and now it 
pays a dividend of six hundred Thalers yearly. 
In 1865 the mines produced about 1,318,000 Tha- 
lers. At the present day not more than thirty of 
the mines are worked, some by private com- 
panies, and some by government. Two of these 
companies only dig the ore, then sell it to the 
government which has two smelting houses where 
the silver is separated from the lead, sulphur, and 
antimony, with which it is conglomerated, each 
making a separate source of revenue; these pro- 



FREIBERG. 185 

duced a million last year (66). The miners are 
a primitive class, they always accost you with 
the words, "Gliick auf" — "Good luck to you". 
They form a kind of military corps, of which the 
common workmen are the privates, and the super- 
intendants and managers, are the officers. They 
are called out several times a year, for inspection 
or parade, and are conspicious in every public 
demonstration, when they usually shew them- 
selves in a torch -light procession. They came 
in this guise to serenade the king in Dresden, 
after his return from the disastrous events of the 
late war. Demonstrations also take place at Frei- 
berg on the discovery of a rich vein, or the visit 
of a royal personage. They wear a kind of 
costume, and are never without the black leather 
apron worn behind under their shortfrock, which 
is considered the badge of their order, and a dis- 
grace if taken from them. The miners are rarely 
able to work after attaining the age of forty to 
forty five years. They begin as children from 
seven to eight years old working above ground, 
and doing about half a day, for which they are 
paid 5 groschen (about twelve cents). The highest 
class of workmen, "Doppelhauer" are paid eight 



186 CHAPT. IX. 

groschen (20 cents) for a Scheit, about eight 
hours work. A man makes from seven to nine 
Scheits a week, not quite two dollars of our 
money. The little boys are called Hundejunger, 
and are employed breaking the rough ore as it 
comes from the mine, and separating the lumps 
which contain silver. From these small beginners 
have sprung men of science. One professor of 
distinction prides himself on having been a hunde- 
junger, reminding one of the poor singing charity 
boy of Eisenach , whose name became world re- 
nowned. Such cases are not rare in Germany 
where the public school system opens to all, the 
advantages of education, and where, if a lad at- 
tract attention by his capacity, he is advanced to 
a place in a free university. The forcing power 
of genius will, like the material forcing power of 
nature, push its way through all impediments, as 
we see a sapling struggle into light through the 
rigid soil of a rock crevice, and become in time 
a tree upon whose growth wondering eyes specu- 
late. From their mode of life and the uncertainty 
of existence, from the dangers always attendant 
upon mines, these men acquire a serious passive 
character, which is entailed upon their children, 



FREIBERG. 187 

most of whom follow in their father's trade, from 
a sort of tacit understanding that they are so 
born. A school on the territory where they are 
educated free, and the difficulty in old states of 
obtaining a fixed employment, binds these people 
to the one routine from generation to generation, 
and though the wages are small, yet they are 
sure, and besides a portion of the day they are 
above ground, and able to cultivate a bit of land, 
which produces something towards the family 
sustenance. 

In the chronicles of Dresden there is a mi- 
nute account of a Miner's fete in the last century, 
curious from its details, and evincing the taste 
of the times. It was called the feast of Saturn, 
and was one among many entertainments given 
on the occasion of the marriage of the then crown 
prince Augustus III. to the princess Josepha of 
Austria. Entertainments followed each other dur- 
ing the course of an entire month, and the miner's 
feast was considered among the most magnificent. 

On the occasion of this marriage a splendid 
vessel, was constructed by an Italian ship builder, 
after the model of the Doge's barge, in which he 
went forth to wed the Adriatic, The gilding 



188 CHAPT. IX. 

alone of this vessel cost six thousand Thalers. 
The cabin -saloon was decked with looking glas- 
ses, and red silk damask. This was intended to 
sail up the Elbe, and bring the bride from Pirna; 
the sailors were dressed in yellow satin Holland 
fashion; there sailed along with it an escort of 
fifteen yachts, the sailors neatly got up in red 
and white satin. The barge was called, "The 
Bucentauro". 

"The barge she sat in like a burnished throne 

Burned on the water ; the poop was beaten gold 

Purple the sails, and so perfumed 

The winds were love sick with them; the oars were silver 

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke ; and made 

The water which they beat to follow faster 

As amorous of their strokes." 

So, with a difference! Cleopatra's crew were 
"dimpled cupids"; here Dutchmen in hose and 
doublet, decked in yellow satin too; it is to be 
hoped my lady had none of Olivia's antipathy, 
"to the trick of singularity, commending yellow 
stockings"; and Malvolio playing the goose with 
his yellow legs! 

On the Vogelwiese grounds, near Dresden, 
were encamped six regiments of infantry, and 



FREIBERG. 1 89 

four of cavalry. At this spot the bride landed 
at ten in the morning, under a salute of 110 can- 
non , here she breakfasted. Meanwhile an escort 
formed, of officials and citizens, to accompany 
the bride to the palace. Fifteen hundred burghers 
dressed in white and red, were put in line ex- 
tending to the Pirnasche gate. Six thousand in- 
fantry stood in line from the gate to the palace, 
where the royal guard, and the corps of cadets 
were drawn up. The procession itself contained 
19 hundred persons; there were 106 state car- 
riages; 100 postillions; 157 huntsmen (Jager); 
12 foot runners; 12 heiducks. Then came the 
prince on horseback, dressed in purple and loaded 
with diamond ornaments; in front of him went 
four, dressed as Turks in gold embroidered habits, 
bearing horse-tail standards, then followed him 
120 body -and life guards, with 24 Moors dressed 
in white satin with scarlet tabbards (Jalanda). 
Next appeared the bride, seated in a carriage 
drawn by eight horses, she was dressed in a 
Spanish costume; and the astonished people looked 
on at the wonderful display. A century later I was 
witness to the entrance of a Royal bride and bride- 
groom, which offered a wonderful contrast here 



190 CHAPT. IX. 

beneath these old arch -ways, and palace walls, 
which witnessed the other. The bride of the 
19 th century (sister of the King of Portugal) was 
clad in a light elegant green silk, a French white 
crape bonnet, and shaded by a pink parasol 
covered with white lace, seated beside her lord, 
in an open carriage drawn by six black horses, 
with postillions in blue jackets and silver buttons. 
The prince Greorge of Saxony, wore the cavalry 
uniform; there was a military escort of many 
regiments, with music, and finally burghers, not 
clad in red and white satin however, but in their 
Sunday clothes, of plain broad cloth, and beaver 
hats, those the Saxons call cylinders! These came 
by twos and twos, representing the old guild- 
meisters, of which they are the remnants. Then 
the butchers as a priveleg ed order, who ride upon 
horses (why ?), they do so in our republican land ; 
a corps of cavalry always stamped with its own 
belongings, unmistakable; horses whose outstret- 
ched noses, and gaunt necks ; bespeak plebeian 
uses. So escorted the cortege moved before houses 
hung with garlands and tapistry, and under ar- 
ches of evergreens stretched across the streets, 
and the diamond sword-hilts, and agraffes, and 



FREIBERG. 191 

necklaces , remained quietly reposing on their 
velvet cushions in the Green vaults , and the 
people looked on awhile with an indifferent gaze 
at a spectacle, which offered no positive attrac- 
tion, proving princes are no longer right worship- 
ful, though a thousand fold more worthy than 
when, that same people was ground down under 
the iron heel of their power. But to return to 
our story of the old usages. 

After this grand reception followed innumer- 
able fetes, one of which was the "Saturnus Feat". 
The arrangements for it were made in the Plauen- 
sche Grund, a wild romantic glen, whither all 
the court repaired as spectators. The object 
seems to have been to shew the products of the 
mines, the way of working them, the different 
processes by which the precious metals gained 
form and comeliness, and also to present to the 
new future queen, an important portion of her 
subjects, the miners always having been con- 
sidered a distinct body of men, and on all state, 
or public occasions they appear, even to the pre- 
sent day in torch- light procession, probably the 
torch being symbolic of their underground life 
and occupation. In the last century, when My- 



192 CHAPT. IX. 

thological subjects were in vogue, they gave the 
name of Saturn to the Miner's fete, in as much 
as he was the god of primary nature. A temple 
to his honor was erected on this occasion (Anno 
1719) in the Plauensche grund, and a statue, the 
whole garnished with minerals, implements, and 
all things appertaining to the mines; the facade 
of the temple was composed of four pyramidal 
columns, on which the likenesses of the king, 
the queen, and the newly married pair hung, as 
also their escutcheons, with Latin mottos in their 
honor; the interior was illuminated, the lights 
reflected back from great mirrors, and within, 
the royal personages and their attendants were 
seated, where through open arches, between the 
pyramids, they could view the miner's procession. 
Rows of flambeaus below, and bond fires on the 
heights around, lighted the whole scene, indepen- 
dently of the large body of men who arrived, 
each bearing a torch. 

These were accompanied by their band of 
music, trumpeters', &c. and sang a chorus in ho- 
nor of the occasion, they then defiled in order 
before the worshipful company, all dressed in 
their respective gala suits; the superintendents 



FREIBERG. 193 

heading the different corps of men, before whom 
were carried models of the mines ; the specimens 
of ore, and all other minerals found in the Frei- 
berg mines , as also representations in miniature 
of the modes of working them. This exposi- 
tion of the wealth of old Saxony closed the 
series of public entertainments given on that 
occasion. 

So now as of old, the miners always play 
their part in all public demonstrations, always by 
the light of torches, typical of their subterraneous 
occupation, where the dull yellow lamp-light, car- 
ried upon their breasts, alone makes darkness 
visible, as they ply their weary trade. While we 
of the upper crust grumble if the sky be grey 
more times than we think our due; when there 
is gloom and dark days about us, let memory 
but rest upon the miner's doom, and thank God 
we are free in the light of heaven; and those 
poor wretches too, let them remember the dark 
deep dungeons of the prison house, all hope shut 
out, and they too will feel, however gloomy their 
vocation, however approximating to the cell of a 
prisoner, theirs is a voluntary sacrifice, they are 

free men. 

13 



194 CHAPT. IX. 

I do not know whether I can lay claim to 
a discovery, but as the Italians say, "se non e 
vero, e ben trovato". I had read somewhere that 
in the times of the commonwealth in England, 
the Puritans prohibited the drinking of healths 
because derived from the heathen observances of 
oblations, &c, they were called "the Devil's shoeing- 
horns to draw on drunkeness", and also the eating 
of mincepies, as savoring of papistry. This latter 
clause puzzled me, and I found no means of 
enlightenment; it remained for after years when 
visiting Freiberg, to discover the origin of the 
above heretical pasty. Many old customs and 
traditions brought into England by the Saxons 
still retain their hold; feast days, yule logs, the 
legends of Christmas Eve, but that the profane 
Mince -pie should have had so remote an origin 
none ever dreamt of ? I opine, but as I have re- 
marked elsewhere, national cakes have their story 
as well as other things. 

It seems some famous Abbot, principal of a 
cloister in this same old town of Freiberg, ages 
ago, was distinguished for his love of good eating, 
and notorious for the talent of his chief cook. It 
so happened during a season of Lent, when all 



FREIBERG. 195 

good prelates discard their carniverous appetites, 
that the chef de cuisine was put to his wits end 
to compose something tempting for the Abbot's 
table, without infringement on the canonical law. 
Finally his racked invention teemed with a new 
idea, and the following day he placed before the 
fasting Abbot a roasted hare, extended in all its 
length and breadth upon a platter. The Abbot 
eyed it wistfully; had he been alone there is no 
knowing what the consequences might have been ! 
The tint of brown was exact to a shade; the 
grilled pork -strips stood up, like quills upon the 
fretful porcupine; the hind legs flattened out, 
seemed ready to take the leap, it was irresistible 
after a four days fast, and yet our Abbot stood 
firm; turning angrily toward the presumptuous 
cook he exclaimed, "Sirrah, whence this foolery 
in fasting times"; the cook stood unabashed, and 
advancing struck his carving knife directly through 
the body of the hare, and discovered it to be a 
composition of fruits and confections. This pre- 
paration is still in vogue about Christmas times, 
and goes by the name of a "Freiberger Hase", 
exclusively belonging to the bakeries of that town, 
as the „Stollen", does to Dresden; these wares 

13* 



196 CHAFT, IX. 

being exchanged between the citizens of the two 
places, as holiday presents It seems the papist 
gentry took wonderfully to the new invention, 
and improved upon it too, for we see the mince 
pie emerging from the "Freiberger Hase", a medley 
to be found nowhere else in German land. 

It may be fairly presumed with other old 
things this Multum in parvo concoction, travel- 
led to England, and was registered among Christ- 
mas observances which, in after times, were 
denounced by the Roundheads as papistical 
abominations. 

There were a good many, "papal abomina- 
tions", in the eating line which are now exploded; 
one was a roasted porpoise, another the flesh of 
the Beaver, an animal w r hich has only disappeared 
from Europe in later times, for it is averred that 
in the seventeenth century, and later, Beavers 
were still found on the Danube and the Rhine, 
An old cookery book entitled, "Liber Benedic- 
tionum", by Eccard, fourth Abbot of St. Gall, 
mentions the flesh of the Beaver as a delicacy. 
The monks who were very strict in their obser- 
vance of the rules, found out the Beaver was a 
Fish, and could be eaten in Lent; Bear was also 



FREIBERG. 197 

on their bills of fare, but they decided Bear was 
not a Fish. 

I remarked in my former notes on Germany, 
the peculiarity of certain descriptions of cakes 
being baked, and eaten only at fixed anniver- 
saries; there is a long list of such, the origin of 
many dating back to the times of the Romans, 
whose habits and customs we know were adopted 
by the provinces which they conquered, and which 
became later amalgamated with Christian obser- 
vances, and so continued on from generation to 
generation, untill men forgot their origin. Among 
these may be classed the small, light breakfast- 
rolls called Heruschen. in the from of a cres- 
cent, used mostly in the south of Germany. The 
festival held in autumn, now known as the Kirch- 
weih, was originally a feast day dedicated to 
Thor, by whose horn it is designated on the Runic 
stones. On this day wheaten cakes in the shape 
of horns were baked in honor of the God, which 
now, in some parts of Germany, are still baked 
on St. Martin's day, a day by the bye, in which 
men are compelled to eat Goose, for the same 
sapient reasons probably, 



198 CHAPT. IX. 

Grimm has proved , in his laborious resear- 
ches that the religion of southern Germany was 
in the time of Tacitus essentially the same as 
that of Scandinavia , and that all the German 
nations before their conversion to Christianity, 
called then superior gods by the same names, 
and had the same ideas of nature, consequently 
the same superstitions, fables, and legends. 

Thor or Dunar, the god of thunder, also the 
god of War and locomotion, was one of the prin- 
cipal divinities , he was supposed to travel through 
the air in a chariot drawn by black goats; here 
we can detect the poetic imagery of a thunder- 
storm, the black clouds flying before the blast, 
carrying along the terror inspiring Thor, bearing 
in his hand the hammer of destruction, and the 
great drinking horn, with which he once nearly 
drained the ocean, thus causing the ebb and flood. 
He is come! lie is come! do ye not behold, 
His ample robes on the wind unfurled? 
Giant of air! we bid thee the hail! — 
How his grey skirts toss in the whirling gale! 
How his huge and writhing arms are bent, 
To clasp the zone of the firmament, 
And fold at length in their dark embrace 
From mountain to mountain the visible space. 

Bryant. 



FREIBERG. 199 

So mighty was this divinity , that he with 
a few others , have stamped their identity even 
upon our present day, and we rarely remember 
that our Thursday , is "Thor's Day", dedicated 
to him by our uncivilized Teutonic progenitors; 
transmitted to us like "Wodens-day", "Frey-day", 
and others, from the inexhaustible Past ; used by 
generations of christians, unheeded by missionary 
reformation, unregarded even by Roundhead puri- 
tanism, while they were persecuting the heathen 
Mince -pie. In Germany "Thor's day", is called 
"Donners-Tag", "Thunder day". It was left to 
the Quakers alone to innovate upon the established 
custom; their first day, second day, &c. were sub- 
stituted in the place of Sun-day, Moon-day, Tyr's- 
day, Woden's -day, Thors-day, Freyr's-day, Sa- 
turn's-day. No one else adopted the example so 
set; nothing is more arbitrary than names; once 
fastened, and impressed by the seal of antiquity, 
they remain indelible; association has riveted them, 
and no power can dislodge them. Names which 
probably owed their origin to some personal pe- 
culiarity, and which were given in joke, have 
descended in all their obloquy upon succeeding, 
generations, and are uttered in simplicity as un- 



200 CHAPT, IX. 

meaning things; whereas, "Sheepshanks", "Cruik- 
shanks", and "Man-devil", not to quote dozens of 
others, are not pleasant derivations to cap a family 
Tree. I made a list once of these curious ap- 
pelations taken from the daily list published in 
the Dresden advertizer, and it is beyond belief 
droll. The individuals might take it in high dud- 
geon to find this part of their identity coarsely 
dealt by, but a man has no responsibility for a 
few letters of the alphabet shook together as it 
might seem by accident, ages ago. A man's 
name, is his reputation. 

Good name in man or woman dear my lord 
Is the immediate jewel of their soul, 
And he that filches from me my good name, 
Robs me of that which not enriches him 
But makes me poor indeed. 



My present intention is not to rob any body 
of their reputation, only to present the funny 
complications of A. B. C. that have fortuitously 
combined, and which I leave to philologists to 
conclude, how and why, merely stating facts as 
they appeared to my eyes in printed characters. 



FREIBERG. 201 

First and foremost stood "Langbein". "Long 
shanks", a Royal English sobriquet be it remem- 
bered; (query whether Arachne belonged to this 
category?) 

Plaster — Beef — Quack — Frolick and 
Fox, wound up with Feuch-kowskin. Then fol- 
lowed a whole menagerie — Wolf — Lion — 
Buck — Monster — Fox — Hund — Goslin — 
Unicorn — Grander — Schneevogel (Snowbird) 
terminating in Adlersfliigel (Eagleswing). 

Of course all the names of trades are repre- 
sented, also Spring, Summer, and Winter, with 
every hue and color ever devised by either of 
them, but such are not uncommon; I could not 
help thinking sometimes of our American ab- 
original chieftains, Tiger-tail, Red-Jacket, Flying- 
Arrow, and others, when I read Rothschuh (Red 
shoe). Morgenstern (Morning star), Brastfeder 
(Breast feather), and Gansaugen (Goose eyes). 
The old saying about "the rose by any other 
name would smell as sweet", is all true enough, 
but I would rather be called Rose, than Frau 
Oberappellationsrath von Katzenbogen, or Frau 
Oberconsistorialdirectorin Kloppfenhammer, titles 
by the bye derived from the ladies husbands, 



202 CHAPT. IX. 

the one, "Judge-of-the-court-of- Appeals", feminized! 
The other, "direetress-of-the-upper-consistory-court". 
This extraordinary way of stringing syllables to- 
gether, seems an absurdity until you obtain a 
knowledge of the language, and learn to dissect 
these apparently unpronounceable words. The title 
is not unusual with us as applied to wives; but we 
abbreviate it into simple, "Mrs. Judge Brown'', 
"Mrs. Doctor Black", "Mrs. Major White", &c. only 
the German title has a feminine termination when 
applied to the wife, which makes it sound very 
comical to strangers ears. The clergyman is al- 
ways called Herr Pastor ("Shepherd"), so his 
wife is introduced as the Sheperdess. The ab- 
surd love of titling people is made ridiculous in 
Germany, and never so much so, as when af- 
fixing some paltry appellation to names, which 
shine by their own merit with a more brilliant 
light, than any court Kalender can provide. The 
account a traveller visiting Weimar gives, is to 
the point. He asked the waiter at the hotel where 
Goethe lived: the man stared at him vacantly, 
saying he did not know, but would enquire of 
the host, who came in saying, he supposed the 
stranger meant the Herr Geheimrath Goethe? 



FREIBERG. 203 

(privy counsellor.) The grand name that had 
ennobled Germany was hidden behind the Geheim- 
rath of a petty court dignitary. It reminds me 
of what Napoleon once said, speaking of Cor- 
neille, "If he were alive , I would make him a 
prince". Louis le Grand was satisfied to pension 
"Le Grand Corneille". Genius had given him her 
patent of nobility, kings could not aggrandize it. 
This passion for titles has been ridiculed 
by their own authors, Kotzebue, and others on 
the stage, and Hoffman in one of his tales has 
the word, Steuerverweigerungverfassungsmassig- 
berechtigt, the meaning of which is, a man-who- 
is - exempt - by - the - constitution - from - paying - the- 
taxes. I have heard too of a member of the 
Marionettenschauspielhausgesellschaft , who per- 
formed admirably upon theConstantinopolitanische- 
dudelsack. The Germans pride themselves on 
the richness of their language which is said to 
contain twenty thousand words more than any 
other. The aboriginal language of the Five Na- 
tions, of North America, presents a maze of 
letters, run mad as it were, but which the ex- 
cellent Eliot managed to combine, and translated 
the whole Bible into it; for instance, Sayanert- 



204 CHAPT. IX. 

siriotaggiwaghnereaghsheagh , stands for, "Good 
Lord deliver us", and a prayer for all conditions 
of men, is rendered , Yondaddereanaiyont dagh- 
kweanietha Siekniyagodaweaghse Onwehogough. 
"Look here upon this picture, and on this, 
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." 

The euphony of a language displays itself 
in the proper names of its people as much as in 
the pages of its writers. This is signally exem- 
plified in France where you remark the sonorous 
grand old aristocratic family names, and where 
even among the plebeian appellations, the vowels 
have combined to give a pleasant sound. 

Thankful should we be, born with Anglo 
Saxon utterance, that among the various impor- 
tations from foreign tongues, English never ap- 
propriated that dreadful "Schw" which shocks my 
ear even when enveloped in immortal verse, or 
sent from the lips of some musical enchantress: 
Schwache, Schwer, Schwapp, Schwank, which 
latter I wind up with, its translation being, "droll", 
and to that "Schw" page of the dictionary, I 
refer my readers. Foreigners condemn our "th", 
and English has been called the language of 
Serpents, from its continual hissing; so each flings 



FREIBERG. 20f> 

the glove in the other's face. The Teutonic prides 
itself on its pure unadulterated issue from some 
unrevealed ancestry, buried in the far East. The 
English on the contrary , is a conglomeration, 
which I saw once thus described. 

In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1803, there 
is a Fable of the origin of the English language, 
by William Friend; he says, "The poor English 
who could do nothing but hiss, petitioned the 
devil for a vocabulary. The infernal professor 
picked up a number of Folios, in all languages, 
with swathings of Mummies, and boiled them to- 
gether in a caldron ; skimming off the froth , he 
sent it to his petitioners, who thus got what they 
wanted. They did not, however, get rid of the 
hissing, and when their benefactor paid them a 
visit, which he was in the habit of doing every 
six or seven years, they entertained him with the 
same sounds at Borough elections. 

It seems as the boiling process was procee- 
ding, the devil was lucky enough to pick up a 
lot of books and paper cheap, the council of Nice 
having just broken up; these too were thrown 
into the caldron, but the hard Greek words had 
not time to boil, the consequence is when a 



206 CHAPT. IX. 

preacher gets hold of them, he may as well be 
talking Arabic." 

The mutability of language, the strange trans- 
formations it undergoes, are among the most in- 
teresting studies of an enlightened age, when the 
march of improvement, and the increased inter- 
course with strange lands and consequent devel- 
opement of new ideas, create the necessity for a 
new nomenclature, which the discoveries of science 
tend also to elaborate. Nor can we pass over 
the change of style which each successive age 
produces, from the quaint simplicity in the early 
developement of modern language, to the bom- 
bast and bad taste of subsequent writers, who 
took strange flights in search of novelties, which 
eventually became absurdities, and which true 
taste soon discarded, to again resume the sim- 
plicity of elegant diction. One can hardly credit 
the fact that the phraseology of Du Bartas, could 
ever have passed current, and yet James of Eng- 
land ordered a translation of his poems. How 
the conceits were rendered into English, I know 
not, but the critics of the day tell us he called 
Thunder, a le tambour des Dieux". The winds, 
"Les postilions d'Eole", and the- sun, "Le due 



FREIBERO. 207 

des chandelles", instead of, "Le Roi des lumieres", 
which cardinal du Peron thinks ought to have 
been his title. Sylvester, his English contem- 
porary, closely imitated this model, made the sun 
a "swift Coachman", and represented the thunder, 
"it groans, and grumbles". 

"It rolls and roars, and round and round it rumbles", 
the lines on winter, so often quoted are more 
natural. 

"To glaze the lakes, and bridle up the floods, 
And periwig with wool the bald pate woods." 

Such specimens of bad taste soon gave way, 
and language softened down into the elegant dic- 
tion which signalized the ages of Queen Anne, 
and Louis XIV. One began to feel the polite 
nations of Europe had found the true musical 
ring, when behold, in the present rage for some 
new thing, the barbarous importation of slang 
terms is insinuating its way into polite language, 
and the silvery tongue is degenerating into base 
metal; it will pass current for a time perhaps, as 
did the inflated parlance of the "hotel Rambouil- 
let", but good taste and good sense will again 
react, and bring about the simplicity of diction 
which is natural. 



208 CHAPT. IX. 

Madame de Stael in her remarks on Ger- 
many, gives an illustration of its language, com- 
paring it with her sprightly French idiom, to 
which no possible affinity can be found; but as 
a professed Parisian conversationalist she seemed 
to be seeking the why and wherefore ponderous 
German could not be made to perform feats of 
agility, and she discovered that, when obliged to 
wade through long paragraphs before reaching 
that key-note at the end, which explains the drift 
of the sentence, there can be no rebound, no 
flashing of wit in such a tongue ; like the people 
of the two nations, the one is best fitted for deep 
reasoning, the other for volatile repartee. The 
physical temperament of a people shapes its ut- 
terance; the impetuous variable Gaul caught the 
impulse of the moment; there was no depth of 
feeling; his music proves it. The deep - souled 
Teuton, grave and thoughtful, weighed well his 
speech, and developed the strength of his nature 
in a redundancy of language, and in the grand 
sublime depth of his musical combinations, rich 
and exalting the soul, as does the sublime, mys- 
tery of his Gothic architecture. 



CHAPTER X. 
HERRNHUT. 



"Yea the sparrow hath found her 
an house, and the swallow a nest where 
she may lay her young, even thy al- 
tars o Lord of hosts, my king and 
my God. 



About three hours distance by rail from 
Dresden , on the Silesian frontier, lies Herrnhut 
the original settlement of that sect known in our 
day as the Moravian brethren. I had always 
had a particular desire to visit this spot, and one 
fine October day accomplished my object. The 
road leads you through Bautzen, a pretty and 
prosperous town, enjoying the unenviable renown 
of having given its name to two great battles ; 
the one under Frederick the Great, the bloodiest 

14 



210 CHAPT. X. 

in the Seven Years War, fought at night; the 
other that of Napoleon against the Allies in 1813 ; 
when he compelled them to retire, and where 
his attached friend Duroc fell at his side. 

At the next station after Bautzen - Lobau - a 
branch rail-road about six English miles in length, 
brings you to Herrnhut. Lobau is the centre of 
the Wendish populations, which remain distinct 
from the German even to the present period, in 
speech, dress, and habits; they are of Slavonic 
origin. 

Arrived at the Herrnhut station, you are im- 
mediately impressed with a sensation of loneliness ; 
no vehicles, no beast, and hardly a man seems 
stirring. A few straggling individuals descended 
from the carriages with us, and took their way 
along the road, disappearing soon left and right, 
leaving the path free and solitary before us; we 
did meet a small boy dragging a hand cart, but 
no other sign of life. 

The village lay just before us in a fertile 
region of fields and meadows; the strait, quiet 
road, merged into a strait, quiet street, with a 
row of small insignificant houses on either side, 
built close together, with little windows, all ex- 



HERRNHUT. 211 

hibiting the most scrupulous neatness; nothing 
however, gave sign of habitation ; not a face looked 
out of a window, not a dog lay on the door-mat, 
not a sparrow flew down from the housetop, all 
was dead silence as in a grave; not a shop gave 
evidence of the existence of a population, and the 
daily wants of humanity; the quiet was oppres- 
sive; the sun shone cheerily, but none of God's 
creatures were abroad to enjoy it. After about 
ten minutes walk, we reached the Inn where 
travellers find refreshment of the commonest des- 
cription ; here the same stillness and neatness pre- 
vailed; I would defy any one, endowed as he 
might be with imagination, to draw one sun-beam 
out of that cucumber. An Inn -yard with its 
multifarious inhabitants, its rubbish, and vile ac- 
cumulations, seen through some dingy window 
pane, has ere now been suggestive to Geoffrey 
Crayons, and some of his compeers, but nothing 
of the kind existed, and I sat me down upon a 
wooden settle by the door way, and looked at 
the paving stones, and a pump opposite, where 
nobody came to fetch water. This pause in our 
progress was enforced owing to the midday meal 
being about to be served. We asked if we could 

14* 



212 CHAPT. X. 

procure a vehicle of some kind to make an ex- 
cursion around the environs ? No — there was 
but one horse in the town, and he belonged to 
a private individual for his own use. The gen- 
tleman who accompanied me, called and asked 
the loan of it for an hour; he was graciously re- 
fused upon the plea that being Saturday, the owner 
was obliged to be by oppointment in the neigh- 
boring town. While this parley was holding, ac- 
cident favored us, a one horse phaeton drove up 
to the Inn door conveying a travelling merchant 
from Lobau, and we secured it as its return freight, 
so while the horse rested, and munched his pro- 
vender, we did likewise on pale watery soup, 
boiled beef, and stout, yellow pickled cucumbers; 
this repast was served of course in the traveller's 
room, a place very clean, and very oderous of 
stale tobacco smoke ; the company not numerous ; 
we two occupied the end of one table, and at 
the remote extremity one other man, an individual 
classed among those inveterate starers whose per- 
tinacity was one of my first "Impressions" of 
German life, as I met it on the Rhine steam- 
boat, and which I have dilated upon in that 
chapter. 



HERBNHUT. 213 

I have speculated often on this marked pe- 
culiarity of Germans; I never was annoyed by 
it in any other land; were there any thing ec- 
centric in my dress, or demeanor, I might set it 
down on that score, but being decidedly of the 
commonplace order, youth and beauty registered 
among things forgotten, I cannot satisfactorily 
account for the scrutiny I often undergo. In the 
present instance my man kept his eyes fixed upon 
us strait over his soop spoon, pale blue, watery 
eyes like the soup; he kept up his investigation 
during the whole of the beef and pickle course, 
he prolonged the stare while he sipped his coffee, 
and finally settled himself with a segar to gaze 
at his leisure. There is no meaning, no impudence 
in all this; it strikes me as a sheer absence of 
refined consciousness , an absence wonderfully 
common in this land, where people ask you the 
most trying questions about your private affairs 
seemingly unaware they are committing an error 
in good breeding; it does not bear the mark of 
frank earnestness, but rather that of a poor cu- 
riosity which is very annoying. The Anglo Saxon 
reticence is deemed coldness, but save me from 
the warmth of asking questions which delicacy 



214 CHAPT. X. 

and tact should discover were improper. I am 
not alone in making these remarks, 

"A childe's among ye taking notes, 

And faith he '11 prent it", 

wince who will at it! Some pretty severe truths 
we hear from travellers, of which hitherto the 
natives, have taken no note; thus Frauen and 
Frauleins, when you meet one of us strangers in 
the land clothed in black crape and bombazine, do 
not fly up to us in the street exclaiming, "Whose 
dead!", as I have had evidence more than once. 
Having concluded our repast, we went out 
to take a view of the town, and making our way 
over sharp flint stone pavements, turned a corner, 
and found ourselves opposite the building known 
as the Sisters House; a square edifice standing 
back in a court -yard, with two lateral wings 
closing in the two sides of it, and a high iron 
railing shutting all from the street; the great iron 
gate stood wide open however, and by a strait 
gravel walk we went directly to the door of en- 
trance where, mounting five steps, we reached a 
massive lion -headed brass knocker, the which 
lifted resounded through the building as through 
a cavern. A quiet old lady in black opened the 



HERRNHUT. 215 

door to us; the inner appearance corresponded 
with the whole; long, wide corridors paved with 
stone, doors on either hand all closed ; dormitories 
on the upper floor filled with beds ; hospital fashion, 
not an individual seen, not a voice heard. Our 
conductress, a plain, mild, middle-aged woman, 
opened a door, and introduced us into a room 
where six or seven young girls were at work 
with their needles, a little hum and titter issued 
from it, the first sign of life I had heard in the 
monastic silence of the place; these girls are 
scholars educated by the sisters, and among them 
you may oftimes find a young lady from Lap- 
land, or perchance from the "Islands of the Sea", 
the missionaries frequently sending their daugh- 
ters here to be trained, and most probably to 
take their place some future day as wives of 
missionaries. Leaving these poor little humming 
bees to improve the shining hour, we were intro- 
duced into another room where, laid out in glass 
cases, similar to those we see at home, were all 
the varieties of women's handiwork, sold for the 
benefit of the makers; these were only the usual 
specimens of knitting, netting, and worsted work, 
flimsy pin - cushions , pursy, red cloth strawber- 



216 CHAPT. X. 

ries ; and needlebooks, which from time imme- 
morial have graced the missionary cases , but 
which one buys for the intention, not the gain. 
The old lady now told us we must see the kit- 
chen , considered the finest part of the establish- 
ment. It was a large stone -arched hall paved 
with stone, and furnished with an enormous kit- 
chen apparatus. At the hour of two, when we 
visited it, all was clean and in perfect order; two 
women sat with a hamper of vegetables before 
them preparing for the evening meal, these too 
were silent as the salads they were washing; 
there were a hundred inmates served every day 
with three meals, for which they pay about a 
dollar a week. 

With this ended the inspection of the Sisters 
House ; this kitchen formed one of the side buil- 
dings which enclose the court; a small side door 
offered us an exit, and here we bade farewell 
to our kind conductress; she had nothing peculiar 
about her, nothing ascetic, and, above all, none of 
that peculiar intonation of voice which religious 
people are so apt to adopt, and which falls upon 
the ear like the funeral death bell ; none has more 
right to be cheerful, than the true christian, 



HERRNHUT. 2 1 7 

"hoping all things , believing all things", but un- 
fortunately most adopt a tone more apt to weary 
wordly people, than to attract them to the way 
of godliness; "a kind of crook which, when once 
it gets into the human throat, is as ineradicable 
as Sin ; the effect is as if the voice had been dyed 
black, or, if we must use a more moderate simile, 
this miserable croak , running through all the 
variations of the voice, is like a black silken 
thread on which the chrystal beads of speech are 
strung, and whence they take their hue; such 
voices have put on mourning for dead hopes, and 
they ought to die and be buried along with them". 
All will recognize in this quotation Hawthorne's 
words from, "The house of the seven gables". I 
never saw the idea so forcibly expressed before, 
though the fact has grated upon my nerves over 
and over again. Well our sister was not one of 
these, a plain, simple, mild spoken German Frau, 
with a black, fringed lace -kerchief tied over her 
head, and dressed in a black stuff gown. 

We again crossed the court -yard with its 
gravel walk, and close cropped grass plots, where 
neither bush nor flower were to be found ; flowers ! 
useless frivolous things that they are! flaunting 



218 CHAPT. X. 

in such wordly colors too! Nature never produces 
any thing black or grey in her vegetable king- 
dom, I believe, but tree moss, and toadstools. I 
saw no flowers at Herrnhut, none of that grace- 
ful tribute to nature, and beauty which makes 
most other Germans garnish their window sills; 
how that beautiful apostrophe to flowers flitted 
through my brain at this marked absence of 
them, and which in my accepted desultory moods, 
I would fain transcribe for those who may have 
forgotten it. 

„Do you wonder why the poets talk so much 
about flowers? Did you ever hear of a poet who 
did not talk about them? No, they will bloom 
over and over again in poems as in summerfields, 
unto the end of time, always old, always new; 
why should we be more tired of repeating our- 
selves, than the spring of blossoms, or the night 
of stars. Look at nature. In the crevices of 
Cyclopeian walls; in the dust where men lie, 
they dust too; on the mounds which hide great 
cities; the wreck of Nineveh, and the Babel heap, 
still that sweet prayer of benediction, the Amen 
of nature is always a flower." 



HERRNHUT. 219 

Our one horse chaise waited for us at the 
gate, and trotted us about the empty streets, pas- 
sing the different large houses appointed for the 
"Brothers ", and another for the widows, these 
congregating under different roofs, which they 
leave in case of a matrimonial alliance, and oc- 
cupy one of the small houses which form the 
town; marriages are made too by lot with mis- 
sionaries abroad, who send hither to the mother 
settlement for helpmates; the girl, or woman on 
whom the lot falls, has the privelege of declining 
the offer, but it seldom happens, and* this matri- 
monial lottery is about as successful as the or- 
dinary picking and choosing process, where men 
draw more blanks than prizes. Among the 
Herrnhuters at least, it is entered upon as a reli- 
gious duty. 

No one gazed out upon us during our clatter 
over the stones; no child's voice, no cock's crow, 
no fluttering of domestic pigeon, broke the La 
Trappe silence. It was Saturday, I did not think 
of enquiring then, but since have thought the 
Sabath stillness that prevailed might have been 
preparatory to the coming day, even then, this 
total absence of sound had something strangely 



220 CHAPT. X. 

unnatural about it, seemingly like a stricken city/ 
where all the inhabitants had been turned into 
stone, or abandoned by a plague. 

We left the town by a fine turnpike, shaded 
with trees for a considerable distance; it is the 
direct road to Lobau, leading through a soft un- 
dulating country highly cultivated; we hardly met 
a vehicle on this road, saw no men at work in 
the fields, no cows, no sheep, no urchins tending 
flocks of Geese in stubble fields, as elsewhere; 
not a crow, nor a magpie to give life to the 
scene, all was in keeping with the silence of the 
town we had left; it was a fitting frame -work 
however, for that "Court of Peace" we were about 
to enter, the cemetery of Herrnhut, which lies a 
little off the road, about ten minutes distance 
from the town. A large square piece of ground 
is enclosed by a high clipped hedge, kept even 
as a wall; at regular intervals Linden trees are 
planted in the hedge, which have been trimmed 
with the same precision, presenting to the eye the 
same even, green barrier raised a few feet above 
the other, the trunks of the trees representing a 
row of columns seemingly supporting it; at regular 
intervals openings are left in the hedge, like door 



HERRNHUT. 221 

ways. Within the enclosure a broad, closely shorn 
green sward extends over the whole surface, but 
not a bush, not a flower shews itself; the grave 
stones all of one dimension are laid upon this 
sward, beside each other, and in regular rows, the 
last deceased taking his place in the ranks; the 
name, day of birth, and date of death, only in- 
scribed; here indeed, death levels all men. 

"These dalesmen trust 
The lingering gleam of their departed lives 
To oral record, and the silent heart; 
Depository faithful and more kind, 
Than fondest epitaphs. When if it fail 
What boots the sculptured tomb?" 

So Wordsworth sings, but a wail has gone 
up from our American bards, over the cold neg- 
lect , and unseemliness of our rustic burying 
grounds, particularly in New England. The Puri- 
tans held to no heathenish observances of flowers 
on graves, for heathenish in truth was its origin, 
emanating from the sensuous Greek love for the 
beautiful. Some rude uncooth lines were now 
and then inscribed on stones beneath which, "The 
rude forefathers of the hamlet slept", but all else 



222 CHAPT. X. 

was stern , cold, repelling , in the "God's acre", 
where they sowed their dead in corruption, to 
rise again in incorruption. 

"The dreariest spot in all the land 

To death they set apart, 
With scanty grace from nature's hand, 

And none from that of art. 

A winding wall of mossy stone, 
Frost flung and broken, lines 

A lonesome acre, thinly grown 

With grass, and wandering vines." 



The rest of Whittier's description is wonder- 
fully graphic and sweet, but too prolonged for 
full quotation. It marks, however, the peculiar 
views of the Puritans, and in a measure here 
among the Moravians we find the same principle 
prevailing; both would testify, "the emptiness of 
human pride, the nothingness of man". It is far 
better perhaps, this simple, even row of stones 
with name and date, than those rude attempts at 
inscription found in old burial places, which pro- 
voke a smile, and raise a wonder how men ever 



HERRNHUT. 223 

could have reconciled the absurdity with the 
reverence due to the dead. I am reminded of 
the touching little incident which Hawthorne 
relates in visiting the old Graveyard in Leaming- 
ton; he says, "I observed one of the stones lay 
very near the church, so near in fact that the 
dropping of the eaves fell upon it. It seemed 
as if the inmate of that grave had wished to 
creep under the church wall. On closer inspec- 
tion, we found an almost illegible epitaph upon 
the stone, and with difficulty made out this for- 
lorn verse : 

Poorly lived 

And poorly died, 

Poorly was buried 

And uo one cried. 

It would be hard to compress the story of a 
cold, luckless life, death, and burial into fewer 
words, or more impressive ones." 

The cemetery at Herrnhut is far from pro- 
ducing the effect of neglect; its perfect neatness 
corresponds with the habits of the people, and the 
whole appearance of the town; it is tended by 
careful hands, and if no sign of adornment ap- 
pear if the daisies and blue bells are kept crop- 



224 CHAPT. X. 

ped down, there is an order and symmetry, a 
feeling of repose, induced from this very mono- 
tony, more healthful for the soul, than the elaborate 
fancies of modern cemeteries, where the wealth 
and fashion, and display of mortal men is evinced, 
even in the ornamentation of death's domain; per- 
haps I owe to my Puritan descent some such re- 
pugnance for ornamentation; I cannot but feel 
that fashion has had its influence far too widely 
in these offerings of grave flowers, originally de- 
voted to the manes of the dead wandering in 
Hades, and adopted by the Roman Catholics from 
their belief in the intermediate state of souls after 
death; repulsed by the Puritans and Pietists as 
a frivolous wordly observance, savoring more of 
fancy, and imagination, than of devotion, the 
memory of loved ones lies too deep within the 
heart to be ever forgotten; we reverently place 
the marble to mark their resting place, but to 
me they have passed into the regions of the Si- 
lent Land, and in the silent recesses of our own 
feelings alone, mementoes of our love and affec- 
tion are to be offered. 

Just beside the cemetery rises the Hutberg, 
or Watch-hill, a sort of cliff, or group of rocks 



HERRNHUT. 225 

on which a look-out tower has been erected com- 
manding a fine stretch of undulating country 
highly cultivated , and totally denuded of the 
forest which existed in 1722, the period of the 
first settlement. 

Let us turn back a moment to take a glimpse 
of things as they appeared in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and of which I have already attempted to give 
a cursory view in the preceeding chapters. Li- 
berty of thought which had rapidly degenerated 
into scepticism, had widely spread through Ger- 
many; the Lutheran church had become a dead 
letter, all life and spirit seemed to have vanished; 
the degradation of morals, of which their rulers 
set them the example, abuse of right, all finally 
created a reaction, and though scoffing and scep- 
ticism remained rife in the land from the laxity 
of Princes, yet there did spring up afresh that 
germ of true faith, which once sown among a 
people can never be entirely exterminated. Spener 
began 1680, to preach a religion of the heart, as 
opposed to the dead letter of cold belief, and he 
founded a Collegium-Pietatus at Franckfort 
on the Maine; in 1705, he was appointed chaplain 
at Dresden, and prevost at Berlin. He replaced 

15 



226 CHAPT. X. 

christian love on her rightful throne , and to him 
is the Protestant church indebted far more deeply, 
than to the philosophers of the day. From his 
teachings sprung what were known as Pietists, 
who eventually were persecuted for- their extra- 
vagant tendencies. Franke, the worthy founder 
of the Orphan school at Halle , followed in Spe- 
ner's steps. Of this denomination also was Count 
Zinzendorf, who founded a new church of love 
and fraternity, the members of which obeyed par- 
ticular laws, and w^ore a particular dress. The 
gentleness and simplicity of this community con- 
trasted forcibly with the wild licence which pre- 
vailed during the reign of Augustus the Strong, 
and which had produced that revulsion of feeling 
in good men leading to reform. Zinzendorf, a 
young man of distinguished birth and fine un- 
derstanding, had been born and tutored by pious 
parents ; the seed had fallen upon good ground, 
and produced a hundred fold. His peculiar views 
and feelings rendered him distasteful to his natural 
associates in the great world, and he formed the 
plan of retiring and leading a life more suited 
to his principles. He married the sister of his 
dearest friend prince de Reuss, a lady whose 



HERRNHUT. 227 

religious views were in accordance with his own, 
and they retired to his estate Berchtoldsdorf, on 
the confines of Silesia, which soon became the 
resort of those pious people, who sought repose 
and abstraction from the turmoil of the world; 
this spot obtained the name of, "Herrnhut", — 
"The Lord's protection". 

About this period one of those wonderful 
awakenings , and consequent persecutions took 
place in Bohemia , that land once almost ex- 
clusively Protestant, but which after the fatal 
battle of the White Mountain, passed into the 
hands of Ferdinand II. and the Jesuits, 1620. 
Till then the states had enjoyed more priveleges 
than the parliament of England; they enacted 
laws, imposed taxes, and chose, or confirmed their 
Kings; but under Ferdinand they lost all their 
priveleges. Previous to this the Bohemians were 
a warlike nation, and had often won military 
fame, but they have now become blended with 
other people; no longer distinguished as a nation 
on the field of battle, no historian has consigned 
their posterity to glory. Till this fatal period the 
Bohemians were daring undaunted, enterprizing, 
emulous of fame; but they allowed themselves 

15* 



228 CHAPT. X. 

to be trampled under foot by the Swedes , their 
courage all lay buried beneath the White Moun- 
tain. "Now blended with other nations, they like 
the waters of the Moldau which join those of the 
Elbe, unite their streams, bear ships, overflow the 
lands, overturn rocks, yet the Elbe alone is men- 
tioned." In 1722, during one of the severest 
persecutions of the protestants, numbers made their 
escape, and a few fugitives found their way from 
the province of Moravia into Silesia, and took 
refuge at Bertholdsdorf under the protection of 
count Zinzendorf; these eventually obtained per- 
mission to build, and the place fixed upon was 
the declivity of the Hutberg on the great road 
from Lobau to Grottau. It was a wild marshy 
spot covered with bushes; the wife of Neisser ex- 
claimed, "where shall we get bread in this wilder- 
ness!" March e solemnly answered her," have faith, 
and ye shall remove mountains", upon which he 
levelled his axe, and gave the first stroke in the 
nearest tree of the forest which then covered the 
land, saying, "The sparrow hath found her a 
house, and the swallow a nest, even thy altars 
o Lord of hosts". Such was the nucleus of that 
sect known in after times as the Moravian breth- 



HERRNHUT. 229 

ren, who have spread their missions far and wide 
over the whole earth's surface. In Germany they 
are known always as Herrnhuters, the word Herrn- 
hut signifying, "the watch of the Lord". The 
Stewart of count Zinzendorf in writing to him, 
he being absent on the first arrival of the Mora- 
vian refugees, says, "We have called the place 
Herrnhut to remind us on the one hand that the 
Lord is our protector and keeper, and on the 
other, that it is our duty to stand in the Watch- 
tower and keep ward. 

The constant accession of numbers from other 
lands finally attracted the attention of govern- 
ment, and Zinzendorf was banished from Saxony 
fbr ten years. His zeal did not abate; he went 
about proclaiming, "peace and good will towards 
men"; twice he visited North America on mis- 
sions to the Savages; finally the good cause pre- 
vailed; the simplicity and straightforwardness of the 
brethren, their unobtrusiveness, brought about the 
conviction that rather than being a dangerous in- 
novation, they were examples of probity and good 
conduct, intruding in no way upon government 
restrictions, raising no flag of defiance to church 
or state, and as such their influence prevailed to 



230 CHAPT. X. 

the recalling of count Zinzendorf, who thereafter 
was merely considered as a harmless enthusiast 
by people of the world ; but revered as a saint 
by his own followers. 

From the wonderful increase in numbers , it 
became prudent to separate, and colonies in dis- 
tant lands were formed as missionary enterprizes, 
and also as cities of refuge for such as professed 
the same faith ; and who were auxious to find a 
retreat from the scoffs and gibes of wordly people. 

The brethren have continued their Missionary 
labors in the same unostentatious self-denying 
spirit with which they were begun, and have been 
very extensively useful. The history of their opera- 
tions is very interesting, and presents some of the 
noblest specimens of christian heroism, both in 
action and suffering ever recorded. They seem 
to have gloried in undertaking what to other men 
appeared impracticable, and their perseverance 
has equalled their courage. More than a century 
has elapsed since the first missions landed in the 
West Indies and in Greenland. Their great ob- 
ject has been steadily pursued ever since, with 
unabated ardor. The "United-Brethren", are con- 
sidered in the light of a Missionary church, none 



HERRNHUT. 231 

other compares with them in this department of 
duty ; every brother and sister stands ready to 
depart, prepared to go wherever the general voice 
shall determine. From the burning tropics, to 
the bleak shores of Labrador, from the far islands 
of the sea, and from the wild Indian wigwam, 
the mild benevolent Moravian brother sends up 
to heaven his prayer of faith, and reaps his re- 
ward if he turn but one sinner from the evil of 
his way. 



CHAPTEE XI. 
BERLIN. 



vities like individuals impress one favorably 
or otherwise from some internal emotion difficult 
to define. As far as individuals are concerned, 
it proceeds from mesmeric attraction, or repulsion 
according to the jargon of the day; but when 
heaps of stone and mortar sometimes attract, and 
at others are viewed with cold indifference, it can 
but be traced to want of association. 

There are some people and places, like some 
plants, which offer no outward attraction of flower, 
but rub them hard, and you are sensible of a 
sudden pleasing exhalation; plain and unpretend- 
ing their hidden merit can thus be brought to 



BERLIN. 233 

light. I acknowledge I have been in places which 
offered no claim to attention , where I have en- 
joyed more pleasure than in my four several 
visits to Berlin. People tell me that unless I 
describe it, my German notes will lack an im- 
portant feature. Destined as it now is to become 
the heart of a great Empire, whose pulsations are 
to send strength and vitality into all the ramifi- 
cations of an integral body, Berlin, famous as she 
has ever been, has now assumed a moral dignity 
and power, which raises her from the capital of 
the kingdom of Prussia, into being the metropolis 
of Germany, and any ennui I may have ex- 
perienced during my visits there, must be erased 
from my "Impressions", and I must make amende 
honorable before the altar of public opinion. Like 
Galelio however, while I conform to the exigency 
of the times in a measure, I grumble between 
my teeth — "nevertheless I found Berlin very 
dull", ("e perche c'e muove"). 

A great big chessboard spread out on a 
wide, flat, sandy plain ; long, straight, monotonous 
streets; long rows of low, monotonous houses, such 
is the old Frederickstadt, basking in the sun, 
without one shadow to soften its uniformity 5 where 



234 CHAPT. XI. 

one may imbibe the sand ad libitum , which the 
high winds from over the plains playfully deposit 
in your eyes and nostrils, when you undertake 
to wander into those far off regions. Remain then 
"unter den Linden", the whole interest of the 
place is concentrated there, between the "Lust- 
garten" at the one extremity, and the "Branden- 
burger Thor" at the other, a concentration of Art 
and wealth equal to that of any city in Europe. 
If we consult the pages of history to learn 
the causes of the superiority Prussia assumed over 
all the other German states, we will find it in 
the elevated character of its early monarchs. While 
the other courts of Europe were degraded by vice 
and infamy, the sound good sense of Frederick I. 
and his son and successor Frederick William, 
laid the foundation of the future greatness of their 
kingdom. This quality transmitted to him from 
his grandfather and father, prepared the way for 
Frederick the Great, not by feats of arms, but 
by advancing and protecting the welfare of his 
people. Frederick I. though fond of pomp and 
luxury, was fully aware of the importance of 
sowing for the future. He assumed the royal 
dignity, a hint for that future. He protected men 



BERLIN. 235 

of letters, and opened his gates to the persecuted 
of other lands; two noble traits which have had 
their fruition. He took great interest in the Huguenot 
refugees from France, and encouraged their settle- 
ment in his states; this was repaid to him four- 
fold by the piety they infused, the polish of man- 
ners, and the various trades and acquirements 
they introduced; many of which up to that time 
unknown in Prussia. 

Then came his son Frederick William, who 
succeeded him in 1730, the odd, eccentric monarch, 
whose contemporaries branded him with the name 
of old savage, because he had energy and virtue 
enough to defy the degeneracy of the age. It is 
to his own daugther's memoirs, we are indebted 
for the information that when the king was drunk 
he kicked his counsellors, and beat the ladies of 
his family, and was a domestic tyrant, and tor- 
ment. The Margravine de Baireuth has written 
a very curious book, but it tells not either for 
her heart or head ; even if it be truth, it is truth 
so loaded with exaggerated phraseology, and vul- 
gar diction, that one invariably only takes half 
for granted of what she says. Her sketches all 
bear the mark of caricature. Immediately on the 



236 CHAPT. XI. 

accession of Frederick William he reduced his 
father's court ; and placed it on a simple economi- 
cal footing. Gold embroidered dresses, and enor- 
mous peruques, were no longer tolerated; the king 
appeared in a little blond wig, a tight fitting 
dark blue uniform turned up with red, a sword 
by his side, and a strong bamboo in his hand. 
French tastes and habits, which had proved the 
bane of his contemporaries, he utterly abhorred, 
and in order to disgust his good Berliners with 
such frippery, he ordered the provosts and jailers 
to be dressed in the last French fashion. Often 
when tempted like the other German princes by 
the French court, he would exclaim, "I will not 
be a Frenchman, I am thoroughly German, and 
would be content were I only a president of the 
Imperial court of finance". On another occasion 
he said, "I will place swords and pistols in my 
children's cradles that they may chase the for- 
eigner out of their country". He did not succeed 
as it proved with his son and heir, but if Frede- 
rick the Great did protect Frenchmen he inherited 
and practised many of his father's principles. He 
encouraged agriculture and all the liberal arts; 
he caused the sandy districts about Berlin to be 



BERLIN. 237 

enriched by the mud scraped from the streets, 
and after succeeding in bringing these districts 
under cultivation , he proudly exclaimed , "there 
is a province conquered". 

" Unlike Louis XIV. who said, ,,1'etat c'est 
moi", he called himself, "le premier employe de 
Tetat". 

Frederick the Great had too much genius to 
be led away by the frivolities of France ; his tastes 
made him aspire to literature which however 
tinctured by French influence , had the property 
of elevating him above the gross sensual depravity 
that disgraced the Sovereigns of other courts. 
Thus the two reigns of father and son extending 
as they did through the worst period of the eigh- 
teenth century, kept Prussia in a great measure 
un contaminated from the licence and excess of 
depravity which prevailed all over Europe. The 
Berliners laugh to this day at the many anec- 
dotes recounted of the old king and his bamboo, 
which became the bug-bear of all slovenly house- 
wives and indolent workmen. The king went 
peering about, examining the state of things for 
himself; scolding apple -women for sitting idle at 
the corners of the streets, "knit dame, knit, lose 



238 CHAPT. XI. 

no time", and if she did not mind, she stood the 
chance next time of a rap over the knuckles 
from the bamboo. The king wanted people to 
do right upon principle; the good of his subjects 
was ever uppermost in his mind. Manly and 
courageous himself, he had a horror of effeminacy 
and cowardice; he was impressed with the idea 
that such were the characteristics of his heir, 
thence the constant antagonism between them. It is 
pleasant to know that this father and son learnt 
to appreciate each other at last. The old Frede- 
rick William died satisfied he left an heir behind 
him worthy of Prussia, and Frederick the Great 
always acknowledged he owed much to his father's 
precepts. 

At this crisis the prince was in close cor- 
respondence with Voltaire, and the letter written 
on the occasion of the King's death is worthy 
being many times read, and I transfer a portion 
of it here. "I arrived at Potsdam Friday night; 
the situation of the King indicated his end was 
approaching; he received me with many demon- 
strations of affection, and conversed a long hour 
on affairs of government both foreign and domestic, 
with his usual justice and good sense; these con- 



BERLIN. 239 

versations occurred daily till the following Tues- 
day; he was firm and entirely submissive under 
great suffering, and was perfectly aware of his 
situation; he resigned the crown to me at five 
o'clock on the Tuesday , and took leave of my 
brothers and myself, as well as all the officers of 
distinction, his friends; the Queen, my sisters and 
I, remained with him during his last moments, 
he sustained himself with a stoicism worthy of 
Cato; he departed with the heroism of a great 
man leaving us all regretting his loss, and im- 
pressed with the example he had set us 

The immense accumulation of busi- 
ness which fell upon me after the event, left no 
time for indulging grief; I saw that in losing 
my father, what a debt I owed to my country, 
and in that spirit I worked, as far as lay in my 
power, to arrange every thing for the public good. 
I began by augmenting the national force by 
sixteen batallions; five squadrons of Hussars, and 
one squadron of guard de corps, I laid the foun- 
dation of one new Academy, I have secured the 
services of Wolf, Maupertius, Vaucanson, and Al- 
garotti; I have established new schools of com- 
merce and manufactories; I have engaged pain- 



240 CHAPT. XI. 

ters and sculptors; and now I am about to de- 
part for Prussia where I shall receive the horn- 
mage of my subjects without recourse to the 
ceremony of a holy coronation, so much in vogue 
in these days." 

It was to the old King and his bamboo that 
Berlin owes its extension and importance as ca- 
pital, he found it an insignificant cramped little 
town, and he traced out an extensive plan, start- 
ing from this nucleus; his idea being to concen- 
trate the power of the state by the foundation 
of a great metropolis. Partly for this purpose, 
partly to turn his people from other means of 
extravagance, he compelled those who could af- 
ford it to build new houses. 

Simplicity of dress and manners, economy, 
thrift, honesty, public morality and truth, were 
strictly enjoined, and he set the example himself 
of economy and moral conduct. That he was 
coarse, domineering and harsh, which may have 
unfitted him for refined society, had no effect in 
alienating his people; he went upon the bible 
principle of "spare the rod and spoil the child", 
his people were his pride, and their prosperity 
and advancement his governing desire. Such was 



BERLIN. 241 

the founder we may call him of Berlin, and 
whatever Frenchified habits may have crept into 
the next reign, and however much they ma}' have 
tainted the early career of Frederick the Great, 
yet Berlin went on culminating to the high point 
she has attained, that of being one of the first 
cities in Europe, where learning, and the fine 
Arts are equally encouraged. 

The army excellently organized by Dessau, 
was the object of the king's greatest care; he al- 
ways wore a uniform, and it was from him the 
whole state assumed that martial appearance, still 
one of its strongest characteristics. If the will of 
the monarch was strong, so was that of his duti- 
ful subjects the Berliners. They submitted pa- 
tiently so long as they felt the King was solely 
intent on their interests, but when his mania for 
the army finally developed itself, and the city of 
Berlin was over burthened with a huge garrison, 
the people remonstrated, and the king marched 
his troops off in a huff to Potsdam, where he 
built caserns, and paraded his regiment of big 
Grenadiers, without saying, "by your leave" to 
any one. 



16 



242 CHAPT. XI. 

I presume all who know how to read at 
home, have heard of the "Unter den Linden", of 
Berlin, a broad promenade lined with a double 
row of Linden trees; on either side beyond these 
a street; and all the museums and public buil- 
dings collected together at the one end, within 
a stone's throw of each other, while at the other, 
it terminates in a great place, closed in by the 
celebrated "Brandenburg" gate. 

The Arsenal, a magnificent building of brown 
stone, first attracted my attention; it is isolated, 
and is considered a perfect specimen of Architec- 
ture. It was begun 1695, finished 1705, its or- 
naments sculptured by Schlliter, who was named 
the Michael Angelo of the North. It was under 
the Great Elector Frederick William, that he was 
called to Berlin and executed the Royal palace, as 
also the embellishments of the Arsenal. This 
stands alone, a huge quadrangle, each side mar- 
ked by a grand portal; there are twelve smaller 
doors, and innumerable windows, adorned on the 
outside with all the insignia of war, and within 
with masks sculptured to represent the various 
contortions of pain and misery incident to the 
battle field. 



BERLIN. 243 

Schluter p erpetuated the memory of the Great 
Elector , and his own fame, by the equestrian 
statue on the Elector's bridge where he sits firmly 
on his war horse, having at his feet four fettered 
slaves which represent the Passions. 

The inner halls, I acknowledge, filled me with 
a sort of awe: their vast dimensions, where a 
hundred thousand stand of arms are ranged, and 
where against the walls and pillars, a thousand 
stand of colors rest; there was a sternness in it 
all, which impressed me solemnly, this mighty 
preparation for the death struggle. It is said the 
attraction women always feel toward the military 
proceeds from the consciousness of their own 
weakness, and the necessity of protection ; I know 
not, but I took an immense interest in all this 
parapharnalia of war. On the lower floor are 
cannon, and field pieces of various kinds, and 
among them the reverend forefather of all can- 
non, the old leather gun used by Gustavus Adol- 
phus. There too are fire arms, from the first un- 
wieldy specimens used at the invention of gun- 
powder, down to the light, elegant instruments, 
with which men must be put to death in this 
our day. I could dwell upon all this with deep 

16* 



244 CHAPT. XI. 

interest, though I never pulled a trigger in my 
life ; when to look at a surgeon's array of healing, 
life -helping knives, makes me feel faint. What 
an anomaly is this our human nature, — associa- 
tion controling our Will. I have known men 
who brave in the thickest of the battle, could not 
stand the sight of a surgical blood-letting. 

Guns and women rarely establish an intimate 
acquaintance, and it is amusing to learn that 
among the curious things collected in the museum 
at Stockholm there is a long carabine, which can 
only be loaded with small shot with which Chris- 
tina of Sweden amused herself in her private 
apartments killing flies ; she was very expert it is 
said, in bringing down her game. Though the 
diversion have the same aim, killing time, me- 
thinks the Queen of Sweden accomplished her 
end with more dexterity than Diocletian who 
speared them with a bodkin! Here is a new ex- 
position of the old version of the shooting folly 
as the flies, and catch the manners living as 
they rise. 

War is said to be the death of Architecture. 
Frederick the Great embellished the old royal 
residence at Potsdam, but war was the art he 



BERLIN. 245 

loved the best to cultivate. It was not until after 
those days of warfare with Napoleon that Berlin 
became adorned as we now find it. The then 
King of Prussia had no particular tastes developed, 
but he was urged to do for his capital what Lu- 
dovico at Bavaria was effecting for Munich, and 
what was engaging the attention of the petty 
princes of Germany. Though without taste him- 
self, the duty to the state, which rules almost 
entirely the Prussian mind, induced him to raise 
those statues to great men whereby a sovereign 
can pay back a debt of gratitude to his people, 
by perpetuating their courage, their devotion, and 
their virtues. 

Mr. Schinkel, an architect of vast capacity 
and lively imagination, was called to carry out 
the proposed designs, and accomplished many 
beautiful monuments. The guard - house , the 
Theatre, the Royal museum, and various chur- 
ches, he impressed with the stamp of his genius; 
many of the smaller palaces owe their beauty to 
his creations. 

It remained for Rauch, the great modern 
sculptor of Germany, to adorn his native city 
with the products of his genius. In face of the 



246 CHAPT. XI. 

Guard -house erected by Mr. Schinkel are placed 
three statues, the generals Scharnhorst, Biilow, 
and Bliicher. The two former in Carara marble, 
that of Bliicher cast in bronze, representing him 
in accordance with his character in a bold posi- 
tion, sword in hand, his foot resting upon the 
mouth of a cannon. Probably the artist had in 
his mind that incident at the battle of Wahlstadt 
gained by Bliicher in Silesia, where after drawing 
the French general Macdonald across the Katz- 
bach, and the foaming river Neisse, he drove 
him, after a desperate fight, into the waters swol- 
len by recent rains. The muskets of his soldiery 
being rendered useless by the wet, Bliicher drew 
his sabre, and dashed onwards exclaiming, "For- 
wards!" Several thousands of the enemy were 
drowned, or fell by the bayonet, the victory was 
decisive; for two days the French fled in dis- 
order, and were finally taken prisoners, together 
with their general Pathod. Macdonald returned 
almost alone to Dresden, and reported to Napo- 
leon — "Your army of the Bombre no longer 
exists". It was upon this occasion Bliicher received 
the title of prince von der Wahlstadt; but the 
army dubbed him „Marschall Vorwarts", a 



BERLIN. 247 

nick -name which proved their respect and pride 
in him, a name pronounced with the same heart- 
feeling as that of "Old Fritz", by which the 
Great Frederick, was grafted on the memory of 
his people. — 

On the pedestal of Bliicher's statue a history 
in relief is inscribed by the artist's chisel. No 
higher encomium can be passed upon it, than in 
the words of Forteuil, a Frenchman who wrote 
on German art, and (a marked exception in his 
nation) shows a genuine taste for things of merit, 
belonging to other lands besides his own. He 
says, "A whole poem remarkable for its variety 
and the consecutiveness of its episodes, written 
with an incomparable spirit and originality, un- 
folds itself around the pedestal of Bliicher's statue; 
it is the poem of the deliverance of the Germanic 
nations, watered by our tears and our blood". 

The great triumph of Rauch's life and talent 
is concentrated in his equestrian statue of Frede- 
rick the Great, which stands between the Uni- 
versity and the palace, at the opening of the 
Linden. Tardy as was this national tribute, it 
was finally accomplished in a masterly style. 
Rauch went expressly to St. Petersburg in all the 



248 CHAPT. XI. 

splendor of his renown, to study under an artist 
who had devoted all his skill to the nature of the 
horse, and who had succeeded in modelling them 
to perfection. There is an easy fall from the 
sublime to the ridiculous, but for the life of me I 
cannot refrain from the irresistible impulse of 
repeating here the anecdote of the old poet, Ga- 
briel Naude who, before writing a description of 
a horse, shut himself up in his chamber and be- 
gan to neigh; then went down upon all fours, 
ambled, trotted, galloped, imitating in every way 
the paces of a horse! 

On Rauch's return to Berlin he compared the 
horses of Phidias with fine natural specimens, and 
finally produced that one, sixteen hands high, 
which carries the old warrior-king who is habited 
in the same costume we always see him repre- 
sented, the only insignia of royalty, an Ermined 
mantle hanging from the shoulder, and as I heard 
a charming Berlin lady say, "His old bronze eyes 
lighted up with pride as they look down upon 
what his successors have accomplished for the 
glory of Prussia". The pedestal is adorned with 
bas-reliefs depicting incidents in his life, and the 
four noble figures that adorn the corners represent 



BERLIN. 249 

the cardinal virtues, Temperance, Justice, Wis- 
dom, and Strength. Under these, groups of ge- 
nerals and statesmen of his time, and tablets 
attached to the memory of seventy four celebrated 
persons. The inauguration of this statue was a 
day to be remembered by the inhabitants of Ber- 
lin. It stood unrevealed to the public till then, 
when purple curtains alone hid it from view. The 
whole place in its vicinity was filled up with an 
amphitheatre of seats, which the people hastened 
to appropriate hours before the event; every win- 
dow and housetop was crowded, the scene was 
described to me by a student who was present, 
but the minutia of detail has escaped me ; I know 
the excitement and enthusiasm was vociferous 
when the courtain fell, and "Old Fritz's" bronze 
eyes glittered once more upon his people! Those 
who saw, and those who did not see were un- 
animous in their cheers, the city rang again with 
the loud hurrah; a vast body of troops paraded 
and presented arms as they passed the old hero; 
it was a complete ovation, and the merry burghers 
who had not had the luck to approach near enough 
to see the ceremony, invented for the nonce a 
humorous distich turning on the present tense of 



250 CHAPT. XI. 

the verb "to see", wherein they laughed at each 
other. The Berlin ers are remarkable for their 
shrewdness and wit, and a sort of dialect among 
the lower orders, in which they bandy words at 
one another, and which has been adopted giving 
raciness to the translation of Pickwick; no other 
lingo on the continent, could serve the purpose 
so well for transmitting Sam Weller's peculiar 
phraseology. 

Some fifty years ago, when the great moral 
revulsion took place, and conscious of the de- 
gradation the whole of Germany had undergone, 
there was a reaction against the French dominion, 
then, when Arndt roused the students by his pat- 
riotic strains, and Jahn used his influence over 
the rising generation, the latter introduced the 
Gymnasium , hoping to strengthen, and raise 
moral courage by athletic exercises; it is said he 
never passed beneath the arches of the Branden- 
burg gate, without pulling one of his scholars by 
the ear, and asking, "What are you thinking of 
now?" If the boy did not know what to answer, 
he would hit him a cuff saying, "you should 
think of how you can bring back the four bronze 
horses the French carried off". The Branden- 



BERLIN. 251 

burg gate was designed after the Propylaeum of 
Athens; the car of Victory surmounting it, was 
carried off to Paris as a trophy by Napoleon, 
and returned only after the battle of Waterloo, 
with the petty observation that is was never al- 
lowed to decorate the French capital being only 
a work of patience rather than of art, hammered 
out by some old iron pot -maker in Berlin". At 
all events the Berliners could in both senses once 
more outcry the Frenchman, "La Victoire est 
a nous!" Those "old iron pot -makers", have 
somehow, in spite of French contempt, managed 
to make themselves famous by the elegance of 
design, and delicacy with which they execute the 
minutest articles. At the time of the final struggle 
between Prussia and France the patriotism of the 
Prussian ladies impelled them to cast their jewels 
into the public treasury for the expenses of war; 
then were fabricated at the iron works, rings, 
crosses, and other ornaments inscribed with the 
words, "Ich gab Gold urn Eisen". I gave gold 
for iron; these were presented as a memento to 
all the ladies who had made the sacrifice, and' 
are cherished in families as an hereditary honor. 
Later they beame a fashion; so the iron found- 



252 CHAPT. XI. 

eries of Berlin can produce a pair of elegant 
fragile pendants for a lady's ear, or the rafters 
of a house, according to order. A pretty incident 
occurred during the above period of exaltation, 
worthy of record; a young lady unable to com- 
pete with the others in casting valuables into the 
treasury, in the true Roman spirit sacrificed her 
beautiful head of hair, which she sold for three 
Thalers*, this instance of patriotic zeal, inspired 
so much admiration that the blond tresses were 
converted into chains, bracelets, rings, which were 
eagerly bought, and the proceeds amounted to 
a considerable sum. 

The magnificent building of the old Museum, 
facing the "Lust garten", was designed by Schinkel, 
and its elegant colonade supported by Ionian 
columns, was painted by Cornelius, the grandeur 
of its central hall, or "Rotunda", inspires admira- 
tion. As to the Allegorical designs, 1 confess at 
once my ignorance and incapacity to enjoy them, 
nor do I grasp the idea. The genius of Corne- 
lius inclined him to embody grand poetical con- 
ceptions in his frescoes, but the forms by which 
they are conveyed are mostly an unknown lan- 
guage to the uneducated, and even when the 



BERLIN. 253 

myth is discovered, it Las this inconvenience for 
the spectator, that it requires an effort of the 
mind to carry him through the labyrinth of 
thought, and such effort is incompatible with 
the enjoyment of Art. Endowed with a genius 
which overleaped all obstacles, Cornelius with his 
gift for combinations of the most abstract nature, 
forgot to enquire whether the spectator could fol- 
low him. The poem frescoed on the walls of the 
colonade is the history of the formation of the 
Universe, and the intellectual developement of 
Mankind. 

The confusion of ideas while endeavoring to 
trace out these Allegorical combinations, is only 
equalled by the fatigue of the physical effort, 
thus the grand fundamental idea of rendering Art 
up to popular favor, and humanizing the people 
thereby, has missed its aim by the mystery of 
its adornment; the imagination can follow the 
vagaries of a poet, but the same vagaries in pal- 
pable form, no longer float in the ideal, they be- 
come of the earth, earthy, and tifesome tasks to 
unravel the meaning. 

Passing over the galleries of Art and collec- 
tions in this museum, I pause enthralled among 



254 CHAPT. XI. 

the mystic symbols of old Egypt. The Atrium 
or Vestibule is a perfect copy of the Atrium of 
Karnack; beyond are the tomb -like chambers 
supported by the lotus crowned pillars , all deep 
mystery; the sepulchral silence , the ignorance of 
the meaning, the solemnity of the "dim religious 
light", combine to produce a fascination difficult 
to describe. Those gigantic Idols sitting there on 
the great blocks of dark granite, miserable re- 
presentatives of a god, with their "still eyes and 
marble lips, and the gloom of an expired divinity"; 
again the chamber of tombs where sarcophagi 
with their mummied inmates, are assembled, dat- 
ing a thousand years before Christ; those curious 
memento mori that graced Egyptian feasts, em- 
blematic of the vanity of all things, they impress 
that lesson more forcibly here, and now, than 
they probably ever did among the wine cups and 
revelry of yore, whatever one may say. A Ban- 
quo's ghost, but sits at table beside a troubled 
conscience. It is to be presumed each Egyptian 
household had its own skeleton in the closet, on 
which they closed the door when they went forth 
to regale themselves; the mummied remains of 
their neighbor's friends were of little account to 



BERLIN. 255 

them at a feast of fat things. I do not wish to 
appear wiser than that generation, but I do know, 
habit weakens impressions. This collection is the 
finest in Europe, and contains specimens of every 
art practised by the Egyptians, and also of those 
mummied and sacred animals, vipers, &c by 
which their worship was debased; there was a 
hidden meaning in the forms of their great divi- 
nities, but all the rest is shrouded in mystery, 
even as the Sphinx which guards the entrance 
to their temples. Noxious and destructive reptiles 
have received honor and adoration; mothers re- 
joiced when their children were devoured by a 
crocodile. No writer, not even among the an- 
cients, has been able to give a reason for this 
degraded worship; one only, thinks he has seized 
the truth, when he says, "the divinity pervades 
all things, he pervades animals also, and man 
worships wherever he is found", this Pantheism 
may have been the basis, but may it not also 
have been a propitiation to Evil, a worship of 
Devils, proceeding from the danger incident to 
many of these reptiles, being multiplied in hot 
prolific countries. We know the Egyptian priest- 
hood was the most enlightened body of their age ; 



256 CHAPT. XI. 

they were the highest caste in the nation, a sort 
of hereditary princes, who stood by the side of 
the monarch, and enjoyed almost equal priveleges. 
Thus the distance was nearly impassible that di- 
vided them from the people. They were judges, 
and had charge of every department that was in 
any way connected with learning or science. 
Their policy was to humor popular prejudices, 
not to enlighten; therefore when the mass ser- 
vilely worshipped repulsive animals, the priest 
rising in his might, looked upon it all only as 
symbolic of a higher emanation. Thus it is 
easy to perceive that what passed for a god with 
the people, was only considered an emblem by 
the enlightened caste. It has struck me, Aaron 
must have had some such mental reservation in 
his mind, when he set up the Golden calf; for 
he made a proclamation, "To-morrow is a 
feast to the Lord", would he have dared so 
to designate it, had he not looked upon the gol- 
den emblem of divinity in a higher light. The 
Egyptian priests did not worship the Bull Apis 
otherwise than as the representative of a God. 
Aaron , tainted probably by vicious example, com- 
mitted an unpardonable act, "he feared that stiff 



BERLIN. 257 

necked people". He never could have given in 
to these proceedings in his heart; overwhelmed 
by numbers ; he was forced into this great sin; 
as he explained it to Moses afterwards, '"thou 
knowest the people that they are set on mischief". 
So he had salved his conscience by proclaiming, 
"a feast to the Lord", and so individually ob- 
serving it, as did the Egyptian priest who wor- 
shipped the pure element while he submitted to 
the loathsome symbol; I see no other solution to 
so extraordinary a proceeding. 

All that mystery of an extinct nation awakens 
our sense of its reality; satisfies curiosity, and 
our reverence for truth; truth under whatever 
aspect convinces, and tranquilises whereas the 
vague, the imaginative require efforts to reach, 
proving the maxim true, "there is more inertness 
in the mind, than in the body". 

Among the numerous collections in the mu- 
seums of Berlin, every individual taste will find 
subjects of interest, but one naturally seeks what 
suits him best. Long halls lined with cases of 
specimens of natural history, are to me an awful 
bore; to another they offer hours of amusement. 
The scientific man would regard perhaps with 

17 



258 CHAPT. XI. 

contempt the things on which I dwell with the 
most interest. The collections of natural history 
attached to the university are the richest, and 
most extensive in Europe; particulary in Orni- 
thological specimens. The mineral department is 
enriched by the collections brought from Asia 
and America by Alexander von Humboldt. It was 
in the historical museum I passed most time. 

A bit of silver ore brings up no association 
in my mind beyond that of a dollar; lumps of 
Amethyst and Rubies in the rough, only the com- 
parison with polished brooches ; Bats and Reptiles, 
a creeping of the flesh, and a sincere thankful- 
ness that so many of the tribe, are dead and 
stuffed; and decidedly the same feeling towards 
the wild beasts, with their glass eyes; but carry 
me on to a chamber filled with dead men's relics, 
there association with its magic wand peoples the 
scene, and vivifies old memories. The early 
curiosity of children tends towards the animal 
creation, perhaps the simple minded little Adams 
partake in this respect the benevolence of their 
great progenitor; later, humanity becomes more 
the subject of interest; the workings of the hu- 
man mind, the achievements of science; the 



BERLIN. 259 

government of empires, and all this moving mass 
about us, and when man has achieved greatness 
under whatever form, we learn to venerate his 
memory, and look upon any little memento of 
him with respect or curiosity, as a part and lot 
of his identity. So in the historical collection in 
Berlin, may be found strange seeming incongrui- 
ties. These four or five old common black pipe- 
bowls, filthy to the eye, such as any good house 
wife, would have flung into her ash-heep ages 
ago, what mean they here? — They come from 
the renowned "tabagie" at Potsdam, where the 
king, of bamboo memory, regaled himself and his 
counsellors in a very vulgar low way it is true, 
but where through the smoke of those very pipe- 
bowls, there rolled good practical ideas of govern- 
ment, and staunch opinions, which had their 
bearings on the future of Prussia, and well may 
she preserve those smoke vents of words, which 
have not proved themselves smoke to her, at all 
events. The various relics of the Great Frederick 
which so amusingly depict the man, economical 
towards himself, prodigal for the glory of his 
nation, are here preserved. His old sword -scab- 
bard, mended by his own hand with sealing wax, 

17* 



260 CHAPT. XI. 

and his pocket-handkerchief, now as well known 
a relic, as the windmill at Sans Souci: A yellow 
flimsy rag, with a patch on one side. An old 
traveller Dr. Moore, who visited Prussia during 
the life -time of the king, describes the wardrobe 
as exhibited to him in the palace. "The whole 
wardrobe consisted of two blue coats faced with 
red, the lining of one a little torn; two yellow 
waistcoats, a good deal soiled with Spanish snuff; 
three pairs of yellow breeches, and a suit of blue 
velvet, embroidered with silver for great occasions. 
I imagined at first the servant had got together 
a few of the king's old clothes to amuse strangers, 
but upon inquiry I was assured, that what I have 
mentioned, and two suits of uniform he keeps at 
Sans Souci, are the complete wardrobe of the 
king of Prussia". 

Peter the Great is represented in this museum 
by a model windmill executed by his own hand 
during his memorable apprenticeship in the ship 
yards of Holland; Gustaphus Adolphus by a camp 
stool; and Napoleon by his little three cornered 
military hat, found in his travelling carriage after 
the battle of Waterloo. Among the miscellaneous 
articles gathered together in this collection, are 



BERLIN. 261 

the robes of the order of the Garter given by- 
George IV. ; and those of the order of the Holy 
Ghost presented by Louis XVIII. to the late 
King of Prussia, and between them the scarlet 
dress of a doctor of civil law, presented by the 
University of Oxford on the occasion of his visit 
in 1814, the which calls to mind old Blucher's 
remark on a similar occasion, when Oxford offered 
him this strange honor, "Make Gneisenau apo- 
thecary, for he it was who prepared my pills". 
Ben Johnson says, "Hood an ass with reverend 
purple, so you can hide his two ambitious ears, 
and he shall pass for a Cathedral doctor". 

The protection of men of letters has always 
been a marked feature of the Prussian sovereigns, 
and Berlin eventually became the literary focus 
of North Germany, where the republic of letters 
found its place unshackled by those prejudices 
of rank and position which usually divide society 
in German life ; unfortunately Frederick the Great 
had imbibed such taste for French literature, that 
his antipathy to the German language became a 
deep rooted prejudice; he despised his mother 
tongue as much as ever did the Emperor Charles V., 
and even went so far as to propose an ameliora- 



262 CHAPT. XI. 

tion of its harshness by adding a vowel to the 
termination of each verb; he soon learnt there 
were stubborn facts in this world, not to be over- 
come even by the will of an arbitrary monarch; 
the German contemporary writers turned away, 
denouncing Berlin as the "Great Casern". The 
day had long passed when rhymes were classed 
into, "stumpfe Reime", and "klingende Reime", 
and "stumpfe Schlagreime", and "klingende 
Sehlagreinie", when poets counted the syllables 
on their fingers, and provided the exact number 
were in each line, it mattered not whether they 
were short or long 

"Then took the harp in glee and game, 
And made a lay, and gave it name." 

The Grand old German tongue had experien- 
ced the benefit of the Reformation and Luther's 
influence, it was rivetted in the sublimity of the 
scriptures, in the heart of the people. Probably 
the King was instigated by the example of his 
quondam friend Voltaire, who in the last year 
of his life, having visited Paris, and being elec- 
ted honorary president of the Academy, used all 
his remaining energy in reviving the question of 



BERLIN. 263 

improving the French language, the necessity of 
revising its grammar, and of introducing new 
words. "French is a proud beggar, exclaimed 
he, the more indigent she is, the more she seems 
to disdain the succor required;' The old Patriarch 
spoke long and well; he urged upon the mem- 
bers the necessity of a new Dictionary; he pres- 
sed the question so earnestly, the Academy yiel- 
ded to his arguments; the project was confirmed, 
and the old man, then 84, insisted before they 
parted, that the letters of the alphabet should be 
distributed among them, reserving A for him- 
self, that being the most affluent; triumphant in 
his success, Voltaire turned to his audience say- 
ing, "I thank you gentlemen in the name of the 
Alphabet", "and we", replied the chevalier de 
Chastellier "we thank you in the name of letters". 
The desire of transplanting French literature 
into German soil ended pretty much as did the 
forcing houses at Sans Souci, where the King at 
great expense had collected tropical plants and 
fruits, which would not assimilate with his nor- 
thern climate, however carefully tended, and 
which elicited that compliment from de prince 
de Ligne, when Frederick complained of his want 



264 CHAPT. XI. 

of success ; "It appears Sire nothing flourishes with 
you but your language laurels". 

As early as 1680 barbarisms and foreign 
words had been introduced; during the period of 
the thirty years war, destroying that fine pure 
phraseology which distinguished it under Luther 
and his contemporaries. About this period; nu- 
merous Academies of science were established 
under the auspices of different German sovereigns ; 
among them, that of Halle by Frederick I. of 
Prussia; and six years later ; that of Berlin. 

As in times of war 7 or great emergencies 
there always appear men fitted for the occasion; 
so happened it for these receptacles of learning; 
through all the troublous times thereafter; the 
Universities steered their course, guided by supe- 
rior minds who allowed no obstacle to interrupt 
the proposed end they had in view. The Uni- 
versity of Berlin fell somewhat into the shade 
during the reign of Frederick William; but Fre- 
derick the Great reinstated it under French pro- 
fessors; he named Maupertuis president, which 
did not please Voltaire who wrote a sarcastic 
pamphlet on the occasion; the King ordered it 
burnt; this was the cause of their first quarrel. 



BERLIN. 265 

In one of his letters to Voltaire , the King says, 
"If I have an ardent desire for any thing it is 
to be surrounded by men of letters, and talent, 
and I do not consider it lost labor to endeavour 
to attract such". 

Frederick's protection of scientific men, stop- 
ped there; he left them to their own devices, he 
looked upon Germans as artisans, the French 
only as artistes. Meantime the tone of national 
literature became independent, and proved itself 
powerful enough to combat the evil of French 
influences, which Frederick had encouraged. Scep- 
ticism had its day, but according to the inevitable 
law of human things reaction took place; the 
danger of the evil awakened men to the means 
of opposing it. The year that Voltaire was esta- 
blished at the Prussian Court, Klopstock was in- 
vited to that of Copenhagen, where the patronage 
of the King enabled him to continue his great 
work, and where the sublime poem "The Mes- 
siah", was completed. "Klopstock personifies the 
true German poet. None before him had sung 
those noble high wrought sentiments of religion, 
of patriotism, of friendship and love in so pure 
a strain; penetrated with the enthusiasm of the 



266 CHAPT. XI. 

northern bards ; all seemed united in him; he will 
ever remain the pride of Germany." 

About the same period there entered Berlin, 
attached to a company of strolling players , a 
young man named Lessing, a student from Leip- 
zig , who had joined the troop from embarrassed 
circumstances. Through the influence of a friend, 
he was introduced to Voltaire, but recoiled from 
this one's superciliousness. Lessing had not been 
appreciated by the professors of his University; 
amidst the versatility of his mind, he had not 
been able to fix on any one particular subject; 
he distinguished himself by profound criticisms 
in several reviews, and published anonymously 
Anacreontic Poems, which were received with 
great favor. Constrained by his father, a severe 
clergyman, to continue his studies at Wittenberg, 
he amused his leisure with literary pursuits. He 
returned to Berlin 1753, and soon distinguished 
himself in a new order of criticism. He dared 
to analize the French Drama, then all the vogue 
in Germany, and advance the opinion that Eng- 
lish genius was more analogous to the German; 
this too in the very teeth of Voltaire, whose 
venom had already been spitted against Shakes- 



BERLIN. 267 

peare. His littleness in this respect evinced itself 
one day in conversation with a lady, to whom 
he observed, "Shakespeare! c'est du fuinier", she 
replied, "oui du fumier qui enrichit les sols 
etrangers". Voltaire being himself indebted to the 
great Dramatist for hints. It was Lessing's bold- 
ness, as much as his undoubted talent, which at- 
tracted all eyes towards him, and arrested public 
attention; that a German dare criticise a great 
French poet like Voltaire, and dare face this 
prince of irony with his own weapons; that he 
dare declare each land had its own national taste, 
and that grace and dignity could be reached by 
different roads, startled the world. A new im- 
pulse was given; Germans dared to acknowledge 
they were Germans. The old ban was removed, 
the rights of originality were established, Lessing 
has the honor of laying the foundation of the 
National Drama. It would seem that in the re- 
public of letters, as well as in the political world, 
general disorder and agitation have always been 
succeeded by a rapid and memorable advance- 
ment. Men's minds, it would appear, must be 
deeply and roughly stirred, before they become 
prolific of great conceptions, or vigorous resolves: 



268 CHAPT. XI. 

a vast fermentation must pervade the whole mass 
of society, to infuse that warmth by which alone 
the seeds and germs of improvement can be ex- 
panded; the revolution was effected, and a sove- 
reignty of German literature established. 

It is entertaining at the present day to read 
Frederick the Great's animadversions upon the 
taste of his countrymen, now that another phase 
of things has been established, now that Goethe 
and Schiller, and the rest of them have confirmed 
the sovereignty of German literature. In another 
letter written to Voltaire, he freely discusses his 
opinions and says, "our Germans have the desire 
in their turn to enjoy the fine Arts, and litera- 
ture; however much I may love my countrymen; 
I must confess till now, they have not succeeded 
very well; two requisites are wanting, taste and 
language; the language is too verbose, in good 
society French is spoken, but they have not at- 
tained that elegance, which can only be acquired 
in refined circles; add to this the diversity of 
dialects. Their taste has not been developed, 
and a vicious imitation of the Koman, and French, 
and German styles prevail, where none discern the 
varied shades of merit; provided there are a 



BERLIN. 269 

crowd of R's on their lines, they deem their ver- 
ses harmonious, when for the most part they are 
inflated rhapsodies. As far as History is concer- 
ned they do not omit the smallest circumstance 
even when it is useless; Germany no w, is where 
France was under Francis I. Taste is beginning 
to shew itself, and later, genius may expand ; the 
land that has produced a Leibnitz, may produce 
others; I shall not live to see this but I pro- 
phecy it." 



After the wars of 1813 — 14, and their vic- 
torious ending, the university of Berlin became 
endued with new life under the fostering care of 
the prime minister William von Humboldt, brother 
of the renowned Alexander. Carl von Raumer 
and Ranke, the historians; Neander, called on ac- 
count of his profound theological knowledge, "The 
New Father of the church"; Schleiermacher, also 
on the same category; Heim, Dieffenbach, and 
Schonlein, in the medical department; Schelling 
and Stephens with Alexander von Humboldt, in 
philosophy and natural sciences ; the brothers 



270 CHAPT. XI. 

Grimm, all names which have given lustre to the 
institution, were assembled at Berlin. Some of 
the above distinguished men having been dismis- 
sed by the King of Hanover, from the University 
of Gottingen, on account of their freedom of 
speech, were welcomed by Frederick William III. 
These last were named from their number, "T h e 
Pleiades". Among them were Schelling and 
the brothers Grimm. It has been objected that 
a great city and Royal Residence is prejudicial 
to student life, offering so many objects of diver- 
sion. They form no particular class at Berlin, 
and are received into general society, where they 
acquire a polish unknown among the "Burschen" of 
provincial places, who are generally but rough 
diamonds. Negligence of attire seems to have been 
an accepted fact in the world of letters, distin- 
guishing its votaries. At a diplomatic dinner 
Alexander von Humboldt horrified the guests by 
coming in an hour too late in a frock-coat, heated 
and dusty from an inspection of the mountains 
of Baden, and the company only reconciled them- 
selves to the fact, when it was whispered he was 
a "Gelehrter" (learned man). I can add a pen- 
dant to this related to me by a friend at whose 



BERLIN. 271 

house it occurred, During one of the public fetes 
so often celebrated at Cologne, when the great 
ones of Germany assembled there, a breakfast 
was given by my friend Mr. Leiden in honor of 
prince Metternich the elder. After being seated 
at table a servant whispered to the host, there 
was a man in the antichamber asking to see 
prince Metternich, "What kind of man". "He 
wears some sort of livery". Tell him said Mr. 
Leiden we cannot now be disturbed; the servant 
returned and said the man would wait till they 
were through, but he must see the prince. This 
pertinacity induced Mr. Leiden to go out and 
inspect the individual, whom he found rather a 
shabby looking person, and abruptly asked his 
name ; Alexander von Humboldt he quietly replied ; 
the rest requires no comment, he was ushered into 
the presence of the invited guests on the arm of 
the host. 

The University stands among the distinguished 
buildings of the city. It was originally the palace 
of Prince Henry, brother of Frederick the Great; 
it contains one of the finest libraries in Europe, 
and also extensive zoological, and other collec- 
tions, with a botanic garden attached to it. Not 



272 CHAPT. XI. 

far from the University in a building of its own, 
is found the "Academy of Song", as it is deno- 
minated; this institution is considered by com- 
petent judges as the best in Europe for the 
execution of grand oratorio and church music, 
where the works of the great masters Haydn, 
Handel, Graun and Mendelsohn are executed 
with unrivaled precision and taste. In the grand 
concert saloon another assemblage is held, which 
does honor to the appreciative intelligence of the 
people. Some twenty years ago, von Raumer 
established the precedent of gratuitous public lec- 
tures on history for ladies; this example was soon 
followed, and has continued up to the present 
day. Twelve professors of the University alter- 
nately lecture every Saturday afternoon during 
the six winter months, on a great variety of to- 
pics; it needed but this opportunity to collect 
audiences composed of both sexes, which filled 
the hall to overflowing; the higher circles atten- 
ded, and tickets which were originally issued for 
a small sum to supply the expenses of lights at- 
tendants, &c. were rigidly kept by the owners 
from year to year, in order to ensure a seat. 
The Queen and Royal family patronize these 



BERLIN. 273 

lectures, and set the example by regularly atten- 
ding , of a respect for culture and expansion of 
intellect. Thus has been generated an atmosphere 
of taste and learning which, pervading all ranks, 
gives its distinctive character to Berlin society, 
influencing the education of its women, who there- 
from have been admitted into the sacred precincts 
of learning; diffusing a new element of grace and 
harmony among the rigid pursuits of science, or 
abstract study, which are apt to encrust solitary 
professors, unfitting them for appearing beyond 
their own dens. The name of Mendelsohn above, 
leads one to speak of the influence of what was 
called the Jewish aristocracy, not the monied, be 
it understood, but that of intelligence, art, and 
science, high capacity and intellectual attainment; 
that coinage of the brain, which all the coffers 
of the Rothschilds' cannot outweigh! Moses Men- 
delsohn the philosopher; Felix Mendelsohn Bar- 
tholdy a relative of the other; Fanny Mendel- 
sohn the sister of Felix, and as good and learned 
a musician as he; it is even said some of his 
best melodies originated with her. The house of 
their father was open to every artist, professor, 
and student, in a simple patriarchal fashion, far 

18 



274 CHAPT. XI. 

removed from the parvenuism of monied aristo- 
cracy. Besides this coterie there was another of 
the Beers. Meyerbeer the universally known com- 
poser, and Michael Beer who was an author; he 
wrote the tragedy, "Struensee", with overture and 
entr'actes by Meyerbeer; the third son was pro- 
ficient in Astronomy, these last did not attain old 
age. An anecdote is related of these celebrated 
sons of Beer (pronounced as we do Bear). The 
tutor of the three boys was demonstrating to his 
pupils some constellations on the celestial globe, 
and was just explaining the relative positions of 
the lesser and greater Bear, when the father, who 
was passing through the apartment, stopped, and 
concluding the tutor had reference to a feud 
which existed between the two branches of the 
Beer family, and their comparative positions in 
life, said, assuming himself to be the "Great 
Beer", don't make my boys too proud, I do not 
wish to encourage jealousy in the family." The 
mother was distinguished not only as a clever 
woman, but as a general benefactress to the poor, 
and uncommonly respected. Besides these circles, 
there were others more unapproachable. In the 
beginning of the century the house of the count 



RERUN. 275 

Alopiius had great attraction; then, between the 
years 20—30, the circle of Madame de Cragan's, 
a lady renowned for her wit and ready answers. 
About the same time Bettina Arnheim, the friend 
of Goethe, principally extended her protection to 
the youth of the University, not only by enter- 
taining them at her house, but by a book written 
expressly for their benefit; among these youths 
were the crown princes of Bavaria, and Wurtem- 
berg, and the prince Waldemar of Prussia, known 
later by his travels in India, and the part he 
took in the Afgahnen war. Bettina Arnheim was 
a woman of genius, but far removed from all 
that external attraction of grace, or manner which 
becomes a gentlewoman. About this period also 
the two Countesses, who regardless of their fame 
had attached themselves to their favourite authors, 
appeared upon the scene. The Countess of Recke 
Volmerstein following Tieck to Berlin, invited 
there by the King Frederick William IV., who 
loved to protect genius and art; then the Coun- 
tess Ahlefeldt Laurwig, friend of Immermann, 
more generally known as the wife of General 
Lutzow; he who in the war of Liberty, formed 
the famous, "free corps", which Korner celebrated. 

18* 



276 CHAPT. XT. 

This lady by her enthusiasm and energetic bear- 
ing, played no small part in the events of the 
day; prompting and encouraging the youth, who 
threw themselves into the tumult of war. The 
latter period of her life sbe devoted to her friend 
Immermann, author of "Munchhausen", a satirical 
composition of much humor, but embittered as 
with gall and wormwood, against Raupach, an- 
other author whose place at the Royal Theatre 
he had ambitioned; Raupach had been appointed 
critical register, and had written some nice come- 
dies, besides a Cyclus of tragedies illustrating 
the history of the Hohenstaufen. He had also 
the merit of banishing from the stage the bad 
translations of French pieces, unworthy of a royal 
German theatre, and thus to have given a new 
impulse to German talent. Immermann offended 
by the preference shewn to Raupach, retired in 
disgust from Berlin to Dusseldorf, where he lived 
a misanthrope, and died in 1840. The habit of 
the Prussian monarchs to assemble around them 
clever men, without regard to rank, has tended 
much to give a tone to society in Berlin. In the 
other Courts of Germany titles and lineage were 
requisite to bring a man in familiar contact with 



BEEL1N. 277 

his sovereign, as we have already observed in the 
far famed literary patronage of Saxe Weimar, 
where Goethe was better known as the Geheim- 
rath of a puny princedom, than as "the king of 
Poets", the title by which his countrymen later 
designated him. Whether Goethe's "von" fitted 
him for these regions of the blessed, or whether 
raised to that felicity by his counsellorship, I 
know not, but Schiller's name had to be purified 
with the lustral waters of nobility before he could 
become "hoffahig", that is — admissible to the 
native courts! 

The late King of Prussia preferred the so- 
ciety of scholars and artists, and liked men of 
knowledge to be appendages of his court. Alexan- 
der von Humboldt, Kauch, Schinkel, Olfers, Spon- 
tini, Meyerbeer, all were invited to the Royal 
coterie. His brother, the present King, though 
amiable and courteous, did not take this turn; 
his tastes were all military, so much so the King 
said of him, "he is the best sous officier in the 
Kingdom". The reorganization of the army and 
its perfection, was his hobby, and the present era 
has developed the fact that his care was not 
directed in vain, since the thorough discipline, 



278 chapt. xi. 

promptness and efficiency of the Prussian troops, 
accomplished in so short a space of time, the 
grand project of uniting permanently the German 
states, and consolidating their power. 

Whether the predominance of the military 
element will effect any change in the social at- 
mosphere of Berlin, or whether the diffusion of 
learning and taste is so thoroughly impregnated 
that it can never be weakened, remains to be 
proved; the annual assemblage of the Parliament 
drawing members from every state in the Con- 
federation, naturally leads to a stirring interest 
in political matters which will creep into domestic 
circles; women we know are strong partisans, 
and is it not to be feared this new phase of ex- 
citement will supercede the calmness of Academic 
pursuits? I hope not. Berlin boasts at the pre- 
sent era a long list of names, professors in every 
department, known to the world for their deep 
scholarship, and extended acquirements; but no 
one name exclusively rings upon the public ear. 
Poetry and Art at the moment have no marked 
divinity for the world to worship; the curious fact 
so often remarked, that great men spring up in 
groups, and that there are periods wherein a pau- 



BERLIN. 279 

city of them exists, holds good in all lands, and 
has become a matter of curious speculation, not 
depending it would seem on outward circum- 
stances, not alone traceable to patronage, but a 
sort of spontaneous burst of genius, adorning par- 
ticular epochs, and giving glory to certain reigns. 



I have particularly avoided dwelling upon 
many things of interest which Berlin contains, 
but the thrice told tale, multiplied again, and 
again a hundred times repeated, has deterred me. 
I shall imitate the prudent conduct of the Persian 
author of the "Shah Nemeh", who consoles his 
readers on every page, by telling them he has 
omitted many particulars, "lest they should get 
the head -ache". Its past history somewhat mel- 
lows its hue, imparting to the broad modern light 
which pervades it, some graceful shadowings, but 
let us view it in what aspect we may, it is a new 
place, a modern city, unhallowed by centuries of 
association, a vara avis in this land of old things, 
a something we Americans find enough of at 
home; a town stirring with life and energy; a 



280 CHAPT. XL 

population of independent spirit, and strength of 
purpose; opposing all obstacles, marching straight 
forward in progress and moral power. We ad- 
mire the energy of young manhood, and wish 
him, "God speed", but we turn with a tenderer 
feeling to that which has passed the hey day of 
youth, bending under the burthen of many ex- 
periences and many sorrows, but retaining that 
grandeur of repose inherent from an illustrious 
past. 



CHAPTER XII. 
POTSDAM. 



VV e now turn to that favourite resort of 
the Prussian Princes , Potsdam — there where 
the old residence , Sans Souci , calls up a 
deeper feeling of association than Berlin itself. 
Forty minutes by rail, brings you into that pic- 
turesque district, watered by the Havel, offering 
a powerful contrast to the monotonous plain coun- 
try about Berlin. Potsdam was always the fa- 
vourite retreat of royalty, but owes its chief cele- 
brity to Frederick the Great, who erected four 
palaces there, and caserns for a large garrison. 
His example was followed; others built palaces 
in the taste of the age, and Potsdam became 



282 CHAPT. XII. 

famous. The little river Havel has done its part 
too in beautifying the district ; feeding green 
slopes, expanding into a lake, with wooded shores, 
and pleasing the eye with those various caprices 
which little rivers are prone to indulge in. The 
old palace of Sans Souci sits there above, on its 
terraces, rising one above the other, gained by 
flights of steps, looking down upon all this, and 
bringing to mind the loves and hates of Voltaire, 
and his king -friend, and cynical protector; a 
comical page of history, one which is always 
amusing. Those two sharp nosed wizened faced 
old men, bore a strange physical resemblance 
to each other; somewhat too, in the vanity of 
both. In looking over the correspondence bet- 
ween them, how clearly one discerns the lurking- 
weakness of both, hidden beneath the laudatory 
phraseology which could deceive no one. Frede- 
rick in his youth a dilettante in literature, took 
pride in being deemed the compeer of the most 
distinguished literary man in Europe, and Vol- 
taire gloried that Kings should bow down and 
worship him. The lavish prodigality of flattery 
on both sides is sickening, its false glare shines 
out in every line; could a clever man like Fre- 



POTSDAM. 283 

derick be blinded to such an extent? On one 
occasion he had sent Voltaire a walking-stick 
surmounted by a head of Socrates, Voltaire writes 
to thank him; "I have received the charming 
letter from your royal highness, and some verses 
which Catullus might have written in the time of 
Caesar, you mean then to excel in all things? 
1 understand the head you send me is that of 
Socrates, and not that of Frederick, as I sup- 
posed; once more then Sire, I say, I detest the 
persecutors of Socrates, without caring much for 

that flat nosed philosopher Socrates is 

nothing to me, it is Frederick whom I admire! 
What a difference between an old gossiping Athe- 
nian with his familiar demon, and a prince who 
is the delight of mankind, and who will create 
the happiness of the world. You do not go from 
house to house as did Socrates, telling the master 
he is a fool, the preceptor he is an ass, the little 
boy he is a dunce, you content yourself with 
thinking it is so, of most of those animals we 
call Men, and in spite of all, you endeavour to 
make them happy." There is an edition of Fre- 
derick's works which I saw some years ago, with 
marginal notes and observations in Voltaire's hand- 



284 CHAPT. XII. 

writing, about equal in absurdity to the foregoing 5 
notes of admiration abound , looking rnethinks 
very like wasp stings! That old malicious viper 
spit his venom even from beneath his honied 
phrases; could the King have been blinded by 
the fumes of such incense? I hardly think it ; 
for he despised Voltaire in his heart. Frederick's 
authorship however, was his weakest point, and 
he prided himself as much, if not more, on or- 
ganizing his ten feet heroic stanzas moulded on 
the most approved French model, as he did on 
organizing his phalanxes of ten feet Grenadiers, 
thus he laid the flattering unction to his soul. On 
such foundation was erected the celebrated friend- 
ship, which furnished inimitable comic scenes for 
the amusement of the world at large, and which 
men have not wearied laughing at. I saw the 
well known suit of furniture bespoken by the 
King, for his pet philosopher's private apartment. 
Aware that Voltaire hated La Fontaine bitterly, 
an order was sent to the Gobelin manufactory, 
to execute a series of designs on the subjects of 
La Fontaine's Fables, with which all the sofas 
and chairs were covered. Upon this Voltaire got 
an old Ape who snapped and bit at every one, 



POTSDAM. 285 

and in his private correspondence designates the 
King by the same name he gave the Ape. Fre- 
derick improved upon the Ape idea, by causing 
Voltaire's private rooms to be newly decorated 
with a paper representing monkeys ; and parrots. 

This visit of Voltaire to Prussia , propelled 
by his pique against the French Monarch who 
would not patronize him, nor his opinions, is 
graphically described in his correspondence; Fre- 
derick received him right royally, provided an 
apartment next his own to which Voltaire had 
the key; the order of Merit; twenty thousand 
crowns pension; his own table and carriage; and 
all this to correct the King's French verses! Vol- 
taire imagined he was to find here perfect liberty 
with his King-friend, but Kings always are Kings, 
even when they are philosophers. Voltaire recounts 
his experiences thus in a letter to Count Ar- 
gental. 

„I salute you from the heaven of Berlin, 
but I had to pass through purgatory to reach it; 
however, behold me now in this home embellished 
by the Arts, embellished by glory; a hundred 
and fifty thousand victorious soldiers; opera, 
comedy, philosophy, poetry, a hero combining 



28G CHAPT. XII. 

within himself both these; grandeur united with 
grace; grenadiers and muses; trumpets and vio- 
lins; repasts, liberty; who would believe it?" 

He continues furthur on, in another letter — 
"It is true, Potsdam is inhabited by mustaches 
and Grenadier caps, but I do not see them, I 
work quietly in my chamber to the sound of the 
drum", he was uncertain already whether he had 
changed for the better, but admired a king who 
governed without the intervention of women, or 
counsellors; and so Voltaire lived gaily without 
being happy (as a recent French author has ex- 
pressed it) "with a jovial company of pagans, 
who formed that academy of Atheists which the 
King of Prussia had instituted, but where no 
Prussian appeared; Frenchmen alone aspired to 
that honor. La Metrie, the King's physician, was 
foremost in wit and ribaldry, he said to Voltaire, 
"do not imagine this will last for ever — the 
King will weary of us; yesterday some one ex- 
pressed surprise at the favors conferred upon 
you, he answered negligently, "one sucks an 
orange and throws away the skin." 

This weighed a good deal with Voltaire, 
who kept the moral of it in his mind. Voltaire 



POTSDAM. 287 

remained long feted and petted by society, but 
the orange skin always remained a bitter morsel 
in his mouth. After about three years, the quar- 
rel with Maupertuis occurred, then Voltaire resol- 
ved to shake off the trammels that bound him, 
and escape — every one knows how he effected it, 
and what a ridiculous denouement the whole af- 
fair had — Voltaire wrote, "it- was easy enough 
to enter Prussia, but it required the devil to get 
him out of it". 

A visit to Sans Souci recalls these old 
stories, but every spot in Potsdam is associated 
with the memory of Frederick the Great, beyond 
all others. About two miles further on stands 
the New palace, built after the seven years war 
as a bravado, to prove to the world the public 
exchequer was not exhausted, it took six years 
to complete; marbles have been lavished upon it, 
but it is a vast, cold, uncomfortable place, and 
one hurries through, without stopping to admire 
any special thing it contains ; a witty Frenchman 
called it the "Palais Sans-Six-Sous". 

Turn we now to an object of deeper in- 
terest, the tomb of "The Great Frederick", in 
the Garrison church, a plain metal sarcophagus, 



288 CHAPT. XII. 

standing there beneath the pulpit ; from which 
the word of God is heard purifying the memory 
of that would be Sceptic ; for never will I be- 
lieve ; Frederick Avas one in reality; it was his 
way of paying court to Voltaire ; and the learned 
French coterie; it was his egregious vanity that 
led him into that great sin. May he be for- 
given. 

On his sarcophagus once lay his sword, but 
when Napoleon, as conqueror of Prussia, visited 
the tomb of Frederick, he put forth a sacrile- 
gious hand, and seized the sword with the same 
sentiment, if not the words used, when he placed 
the iron crown of Lombardy upon his self- crow- 
ned head, "gare qui me la touche". The sword 
was never recovered, but they brought French 
Eagles, and standards there, after the great defeat 
of Napoleon, and hung them above the tomb of 
the old warrior, a just retribution. Napoleon 
appropriated also the alarmwatch of Frederick, 
which had been worn in all his campaigns, that 
pointed the hour of his death at St Helena. 

There is no city in Germany so well known 
abroad as Berlin. A prestige was attached to it 
from the circumstances I have related. French- 



POTSDAM. 289 

men did not ignore it > because their national 
vanity was gratified by the adulation paid to 
their great men, while the remainder of Germany 
was looked upon by them with contempt, as a 
mixture of visionary enthusiasts, or bearish stu- 
dents. Probably at all times conquerors have 
displayed more or less, their pride of success, 
but Napoleon was brutal. The following instance 
lately read, is a striking instance, not only of 
the character of the man, but of his conduct to- 
wards Prussia. 

In 1807 after the peace of Tilsit, Daun 
governed Prussia, and every thing remained on 
the same footing as it had eight months before; 
Barante refunded to the governor what he had 
collected in Silesia, which amounted to three mil- 
lions, over the expenses; Daun says — "when I 
parted with the Emperor at Koenigsberg, just as 
he was mounting the carriage step, he turned 
and said, "you will remain with tha army, you 
will supply it, and you will bring me back two 
hundred million". I exclaimed again s it — he re- 
plied, "va pour cent cinquante"; the carriage door 
was closed, and he drove off."' 



19 



290 CIIAPT. XII. 

Some one called Kings, — "crowned pirates". 
Conquerors are robbers on a large scale ; and 
yet we raise statues to their honor, and magnify 
their deeds into virtues, deeds stamped with the 
sacrifice of tens of thousands of immortal souls. 

May these War -heroes cease upon the earth; 
may the nations acknowledge a higher aim, in 
the grand moral progress of society; may the 
soul-stirring words of Uhland warm all hearts: 

Onward for ever! Russia loudly cries "onward", 
Prussia has learnt the cry, her echos shout "onward!" 
Rise potent Austria, onward, march onward! 
Up thou old Saxony, hand in hand onward. 
God help thee Helvetia, Bavaria, rush onward, 
Franconia, Alsacia, Hesse, Suabia, all onward. 
Onward England and Spain, grasp the hands of thy 

brothers, 
Onward ever, push onward, the goal lies before ye, 
Onward concmerors, onward, your leader's name's 

Onward *). 
*) Blucher. 

These lines of Uhland, roughly cast as they 
are into English, are so spirit-stirring, one may 
well apply to them the remark, "pour ceux qui 



POTSDAM. 291 

sentent, il n'y a pas de langue etrangere"; a 
chord" is struck to which all hearts must respond. 
They once roused the people against the usur- 
pations of France, and now may they rouse them, 
not to the din of arms, but to the onward march 
of Union. 



VALE. 



Printed by C. Heinrich at Dresden. 



